If you’re wish this Christmas is to see a smoldering romance played out on the big screen, you’re in luck! The new film Babygirl, which sees Nicole Kidman as an executive drawn into a steamy affair with an intern, opens wide just in time for Christmas Day.
The A24 film is a racier holiday option, probably not best for families. It centers on Romy (Kidman), the CEO of a tech company that is making big moves. By day, she’s the boss leading a powerful company. At night, she’s the wife of an artist, theater director Jacob (Antonio Banderas), and mother to two girls. All that leaves her feeling pressure and feeling constricted, in both life and love.
When a new intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson), joins her company, he catches Romy’s eye. He also aggressively moves into her sphere, requesting her as his company mentor to get closer. That close contact soon evolves into something else as Romy finds her passion ignited by this new man, who takes charge when it comes to their illicit relationship.
This film promises steamy moments and sequences as part of its marketing campaign, and it certainly delivers on this promise. Some have called this an adult 50 Shades of Grey, but that feels a little too simplistic. This is more about a woman who embraces a freedom that comes from a new relationship with a new power dynamic.
The film comes from writer/director Halina Rejin, who delivered last year’s horror film Bodies Bodies Bodies. She has a good feel for building drama and delivers some steamy scenes here that help drive forward this narrative and story of a woman embracing something new for the first time. And she finds great collaborators in Kidman and Dickinson.
Both actors deliver some smoldering intensity at times as they play a game of cat-and-mouse early before their relationship evolves into something else. There’s a vulnerability to the scenes, particularly from Kidman. The veteran actress takes on a different kind of role here and gives one of the most daring performances of her career, which really helps to sell this film.
The struggle for me was the story. I wasn’t as taken with this character and the journey that she goes on during the film. Some of the arc of the narrative, particularly in the third act, doesn’t quite work for me despite the strong work from Kidman. I liked the craft and the mood created by Rejin in this film, but the narrative falls short of being compelling. I liked it, but I didn’t love it.
If you’re looking for something different and something edgier this holiday season, Babygirl will hit the spot. But it’s decidedly aimed at some specific audiences.
Babygirl opens nationwide on Christmas Day.