[FILM REVIEW] BABYGIRL Review (2025)
Summary: A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much-younger intern.
Year: 2025
Cinema Release Dates: 30th January 2025 (Australia), TBA (Thailand), 10th January 2025 (UK), 25th December 2024 (USA)
VOD Release Dates: 13th February 2025 (USA)
Country: Netherlands, USA
Director: Halina Reijn
Screenwriter: Halina Reijn
Cast: Antonio Banderas (Jacob), Bartley Booz (Tom), John Cenatiempo (David), Anoop Desai (Robert), Harris Dickinson (Samuel), Robert Farrier (Brack/Stephen), Gaite Jansen (Hedda/Scarlett), Nicole Kidman (Romy), Michael Kirchmann (Ari), Mary Ann Lamb (Hannah), Esther McGregor (Isabel), Tess McMillan (Ophelia), Gabrielle Policano (Mary), Molly Price (Mrs. Holbrook), Vaughan Reilly (Nora), Leslie Silva (Hazel), Victor Slezak (Mr. Missel), Maxwell Whittington-Cooper (Josh), Sophie Wilde (Esme)
Running Time: 114 minutes
Classification: MA15+ (Australia), TBC (Thailand), 18 (UK), R (USA)
OUR BABYGIRL REVIEWS
Alex First’s Babygirl Review
To the outside world she has the perfect life. She is CEO of her own company that is going places.
She has a doting theatre director husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas) and two daughters, Isabel (Esther McGregor) and Nora (Vaughan Reilly).
But she has a metaphorical itch that has long needed scratching. And in the most unlikely of circumstances, it indeed is.
At the same time, doing so puts in peril all she has worked so diligently to attain.
I speak of Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman), who is fashionable and highly regarded.
Her successful warehouse automation business engages several new interns, one of whom immediately catches her eye.
Earlier, on the street, she witnessed him calming a ferocious dog, who was in attack mode.
Samuel (Harrison Dickinson) is not backward in coming forward. He knows what he wants and goes for it.
He chooses Romy as his reluctant mentor and the tension in the air is palpable.
It is clear that physical intimacy between them is just a matter of time.
It is he who will call the shots, he who will turn up unexpectedly and she who will succumb to the thrill and the danger.
Romy – who has a decided kink (as does Samuel) – is used to vanilla sex, but this is anything but that.
The age difference between them is no impediment.
Both continue to push the boundaries.
Unsurprisingly, matters will inevitably come to a head. It is merely a question of when.
Babygirl is about power and control.
It is also about women climbing the corporate ladder and I don’t just speak here about Romy, but also of her personal assistant, Esme (Sophie Wilde).
Esme has long sought a promotion and even though Romy has an equal opportunity firm and praises Esme’s work, Romy has been prevaricating.
Babygirl is in the same sexually charged milieu as Fatal Attraction (1987) and Basic Instinct (1992).
Writer and director Halina Reijn (Instinct) draws us into a web of deceit, where the risk of exposure remains an ever-present threat.
A further sexual element in the story is Romy’s eldest daughter Isabel’s interest in the same gender.
The movie is tense throughout, with the music and sound effects (think heavy breathing) helping to drive the narrative.
Nicole Kidman throws caution to the wind in another fearless performance, in which she gives herself over to the risque storyline.
She is a force to be reckoned with, whether wielding power or displaying vulnerability, which the role calls for.
While there are elements of nudity in the film, the path chosen is largely one of eroticism.
I can’t say Harrison Dickinson is entirely likeable as the bolshie lead. Still, that makes him eminently watchable.
Truth be told, he is the bad boy of the piece and this is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that women are drawn to bad boys.
Antonio Banderas plays a largely thankless part as the straitlaced husband.
Sophie Wilde makes her mark as the executive assistant who learns how to step up.
Esther McGregor has a meaty role as the daughter unafraid of spreading her wings.
Babygirl certainly attracts attention – let’s face it, sex sells, and it always has and will – although I can’t say I was totally sold on what I saw as a convenient ending. Regardless, there is no doubting that this is Nicole Kidman’s vehicle and one where she deserves the accolades.
Alex’s rating Out Of 5
Average Subculture rating Out Of 5
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