Babygirl Review: Nicole Kidman’s Provocative Erotic Thriller

Nicole Kidman has never been one to shy away from challenging roles, but her latest film Babygirl might be her most provocative performance yet. Directed by Halina Reijn, this modern erotic thriller delves into the complexities of desire, power dynamics, and the taboos surrounding female sexuality in ways that cinema rarely dares to explore. The film has generated significant buzz not just for its explicit content, but for its nuanced examination of what happens when a woman in power surrenders control in the most intimate aspects of her life.

At its core, Babygirl tells the story of Romy Mathis, a high-powered CEO of a robotics automation company in New York City, portrayed with raw vulnerability by Kidman. Despite having what appears to be a perfect life—a successful career, a loving husband in theater director Jacob (Antonio Banderas), and two daughters—Romy harbors a deeply unfulfilled sexual desire that has plagued her throughout her twenty-year marriage. This internal conflict sets the stage for a dangerous liaison that will threaten everything she has built.

The Premise: When Power Meets Submission

The film opens with a telling scene that establishes the central tension of Romy’s existence. After finishing what appears to be satisfying sex with her husband Jacob, she waits until he falls asleep before retreating to watch pornography and pleasure herself—the only way she can achieve genuine orgasm. This opening sequence immediately signals that Babygirl isn’t interested in romanticizing desire or pretending that successful women don’t have complex sexual needs.

Romy’s carefully constructed world begins to unravel when she encounters Samuel, a much younger intern at her company played by Harris Dickinson. Their first meeting is almost cinematic in its symbolism—Samuel rescues Romy from an aggressive dog, using nothing but calm authority and a dog treat to bring the animal to heel. This moment foreshadows the dynamic that will soon develop between them, with Samuel recognizing something in Romy that even she hasn’t fully acknowledged: her desire to relinquish control.

When Samuel selects Romy as his mentor through the company’s mentorship program, what begins as a professional relationship quickly becomes charged with sexual tension. Samuel’s boldness in propositioning his boss during a private meeting could be read as inappropriate or even predatory, but the film carefully navigates these murky waters by exploring how Romy herself is complicit in—and actively desires—what unfolds between them.

Challenging Power Dynamics in the #MeToo Era

What makes Babygirl particularly daring is its willingness to explore a workplace affair where the woman holds institutional power but seeks sexual submission. Director Halina Reijn has crafted a film that refuses simple moralizing, instead presenting the complexity of human desire in all its contradictions. When Romy expresses concern that she might be taking advantage of Samuel due to their power imbalance, he flips the script entirely, asserting that he holds the real power because one phone call could destroy her career.

This reversal is central to understanding what the film is attempting to accomplish. In an era defined by the #MeToo movement and heightened awareness of workplace harassment, Babygirl asks uncomfortable questions about consent, desire, and agency. Can a powerful woman genuinely consent to submission with a subordinate? Does the fact that she actively desires the dynamic make it less problematic? The film doesn’t provide easy answers, instead allowing audiences to sit with the discomfort these questions generate.

Their first sexual encounter at a hotel is filmed with unflinching honesty. Romy experiences an intense orgasm for the first time with a partner, but immediately breaks down sobbing afterward—not from regret, but from the overwhelming emotional weight of finally experiencing what she has craved while simultaneously recognizing the danger of where this path leads. Kidman’s performance in this scene is nothing short of remarkable, capturing the collision of ecstasy, shame, guilt, and liberation in a single moment.

The Unraveling: When Fantasy Intrudes on Reality

As Romy and Samuel’s affair intensifies, the boundaries between their secret encounters and Romy’s real life begin to blur in increasingly uncomfortable ways. Samuel’s behavior becomes more possessive and boundary-crossing, particularly when he shows up uninvited at Romy’s country home under the pretense of returning a forgotten laptop. This intrusion into her family space represents a violation of the implicit rules Romy believed governed their affair, and she lashes out at him with genuine anger.

The power struggle between them escalates when Samuel threatens to request a transfer to another department—a move that would inevitably raise questions about Romy’s role in his decision. This moment crystallizes the precarious position Romy has placed herself in: she is both his boss and his submissive, unable to exercise her professional authority without risking exposure of their relationship. The trap she has set for herself becomes inescapable.

The situation deteriorates further when Samuel begins dating Esme, Romy’s executive assistant, and uses this relationship as another means of inserting himself into Romy’s world. When he appears at daughter Nora’s birthday party with Esme, the collision of Romy’s separate lives becomes unavoidable. Esme’s discovery of the affair adds another layer of complexity, as she implores Romy to end it—not out of moral judgment, but because Romy represents one of the few women in high-ranking positions at the company and needs to maintain her respectability as a role model.

The Confession: Honesty and Its Consequences

The weight of maintaining her double life eventually becomes too much for Romy to bear. In a moment of desperate honesty, she admits to Jacob that she has never experienced an orgasm with him throughout their entire marriage—a revelation that cuts to the core of their relationship. This confession is both liberating and devastating, acknowledging a fundamental disconnect that has existed between them for two decades.

When Romy finally confesses the affair to Jacob, she is dishonest about its nature, describing it as a one-night stand with a stranger rather than acknowledging the ongoing, psychologically complex relationship she has been having with her intern. This partial truth represents Romy’s inability to fully articulate what she needs and desires, even in the moment of confession. Jacob’s devastation is compounded when he later discovers Samuel at their country house, leading to a physical confrontation between the two men.

The fight scene is notable for what follows it. As tensions reach their peak, Jacob suffers a panic attack, and it is Samuel who helps him through it with an embrace and calm presence—the same skills he used to control the dog in their first encounter. When Jacob dismisses female masochism as neurosis or male construct, Samuel challenges this as outdated thinking, suggesting a generational divide in understanding sexuality and desire. This moment positions Samuel not as a simple villain or predator, but as someone who perhaps understands aspects of human sexuality that Jacob’s generation has failed to fully grapple with.

Nicole Kidman’s Fearless Performance

At 57 years old when filming Babygirl, Nicole Kidman delivers one of the most vulnerable and physically exposed performances of her career. The explicit nature of the sex scenes has generated considerable discussion, but what makes Kidman’s work truly remarkable is the emotional honesty she brings to every moment. This isn’t mere titillation or shock value—every intimate scene serves the larger narrative of a woman discovering parts of herself that have been suppressed for decades.

Kidman has spoken in interviews about the challenges of filming such explicit content, but also about the importance of telling stories about female desire that go beyond conventional narratives. Romy isn’t punished by the film for her desires, nor is she simply celebrated for exploring them. Instead, she exists in the messy middle ground where most human experience actually resides—wanting things that contradict our values, feeling shame about desires that bring us pleasure, and struggling to reconcile different aspects of our identity.

The actress brings her considerable technical skills to bear in depicting Romy’s transformation throughout the film. In boardroom scenes, Kidman projects absolute confidence and authority, her posture and delivery commanding respect. In private moments with Samuel, she physically transforms, her body language becoming more submissive, her voice softer and more uncertain. This physical acting creates a vivid portrait of a woman who inhabits completely different personas depending on context—until those contexts begin to collide.

Supporting Performances That Elevate the Material

While Kidman anchors the film, the supporting performances are crucial to its success. Harris Dickinson brings surprising nuance to Samuel, who could easily have been portrayed as a one-dimensional seducer or predator. Instead, Dickinson presents Samuel as someone who recognizes and responds to Romy’s unspoken needs while also being young enough to be reckless about boundaries and consequences. His performance suggests that Samuel genuinely cares for Romy while also being intoxicated by the power he wields over her.

Antonio Banderas brings warmth and complexity to Jacob, who could have been dismissed as simply inadequate or inattentive. Instead, Banderas portrays a man who genuinely loves his wife and believes their relationship is solid, making his devastation at her betrayal all the more poignant. His Jacob isn’t a villain—he’s someone who has failed to see or understand a fundamental aspect of his partner’s needs, despite two decades of marriage.

Sophie Wilde as Esme provides an important outside perspective on the affair, representing the professional risks Romy is taking. Her character serves as both confidante and potential threat, reminding audiences that Romy’s actions don’t exist in a vacuum but have implications for other women trying to succeed in male-dominated industries.

The Resolution: Finding New Equilibrium

The film’s ending offers a form of resolution that is both satisfying and ambiguous. Samuel takes a job in Japan, removing himself from Romy’s immediate orbit but leaving the question of whether he was encouraged to do so deliberately vague. When a board member implies knowledge of the affair and invites Romy to his house—clearly with inappropriate intentions—she firmly rejects him, demonstrating that she has found a new sense of boundaries and self-respect.

Romy and Jacob eventually reconcile and work to rebuild their relationship, now with honesty about Romy’s sexual needs. The final scene shows them engaging in rougher sex reminiscent of what Romy experienced with Samuel, but with an important detail: Romy achieves orgasm while fantasizing about Samuel and the dog from their first encounter. This ending refuses to provide a tidy moral conclusion. Romy and Jacob are together and working on their relationship, but she still needs to imagine someone else to achieve sexual satisfaction with her husband.

This ambiguous ending has sparked considerable debate among viewers and critics. Some see it as realistic—acknowledging that decades of sexual patterns can’t be completely erased by a few honest conversations. Others view it as somewhat pessimistic about the possibility of true intimacy being restored. What’s clear is that director Halina Reijn is more interested in depicting messy human reality than providing comforting fantasies about how quickly people can change.

A Modern Take on the Erotic Thriller

Director Halina Reijn has positioned Babygirl as a modern revision of the erotic thriller genre, which flourished in the 1990s with films like Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, and Indecent Proposal. However, where those films often positioned female sexuality as dangerous or punished women for their desires, Babygirl attempts something more nuanced. Reijn, who previously directed Bodies Bodies Bodies, brings a distinctly female perspective to material that has traditionally been filtered through the male gaze.

The film’s explicit sex scenes are filmed in a way that centers female pleasure and perspective rather than treating Kidman’s body as an object for audience titillation. The camera focuses on faces and emotional responses as much as bodies, emphasizing the psychological dimensions of sexuality. This approach aligns the film more closely with recent explorations of female desire like Promising Young Woman or the television series The Affair than with traditional erotic thrillers.

What Babygirl shares with earlier erotic thrillers is a willingness to explore the transgressive and taboo without judgment. The film doesn’t condemn Romy for her desires or suggest that wanting to be dominated is somehow anti-feminist or problematic. Instead, it treats BDSM dynamics and power exchange as legitimate expressions of sexuality that exist alongside—and sometimes in tension with—other aspects of identity and social position.

Cultural Conversations About Female Desire

Babygirl arrives at a moment when conversations about female sexuality, consent, and power are more complex and nuanced than ever before. The success of books like Fifty Shades of Grey demonstrated a massive appetite for narratives about consensual dominance and submission, particularly among female audiences. However, the #MeToo movement also exposed how power imbalances in workplace and social situations can create coercive environments that undermine genuine consent.

The film navigates this complicated terrain by presenting a scenario where both things are true: Romy holds institutional power over Samuel, but he exercises psychological and sexual dominance over her. She desires this dynamic while also recognizing its dangers. She experiences genuine liberation through their encounters while also betraying her values and commitments. These contradictions aren’t resolved because in real human experience, they often can’t be.

By casting Nicole Kidman—an actress in her late fifties—as the protagonist, the film also challenges ageist assumptions about female sexuality. Hollywood rarely depicts older women as sexually vital, let alone as subjects of intense desire. Romy’s age relative to Samuel’s adds another layer of taboo to their relationship, but the film treats her sexuality as valid and important rather than something to be ashamed of or hidden.

Critical Reception and Controversy

The film has generated significant critical discussion and some controversy since its release. Critics have praised Kidman’s fearless performance and Reijn’s assured direction, with many noting the film’s willingness to explore difficult questions without providing easy answers. The explicit nature of the sex scenes has been both celebrated for their honesty and criticized by some as gratuitous, though defenders argue that the explicit nature is necessary to the film’s themes.

Some feminist critics have grappled with whether the film successfully explores female sexual agency or inadvertently reinforces problematic dynamics. The question of whether Samuel is manipulative or simply responsive to Romy’s desires remains open to interpretation, which is likely intentional on Reijn’s part. By refusing to clearly position characters as heroes or villains, the film forces audiences to examine their own assumptions about desire, power, and consent.

The workplace affair aspect has also generated discussion about appropriate boundaries in professional settings. While the film clearly shows the destructive consequences of Romy’s choices, it also doesn’t entirely condemn her, recognizing the human complexity behind decisions that look clearly wrong from the outside. This nuanced approach has been refreshing for some viewers and frustrating for others who want clearer moral positioning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is Babygirl appropriate for all audiences?

A: No, Babygirl is rated for mature audiences only due to explicit sexual content, nudity, and adult themes. The film contains graphic sex scenes that are integral to its narrative but may be uncomfortable for some viewers.

Q: How does Babygirl differ from traditional erotic thrillers?

A: Unlike classic erotic thrillers that often punished female sexuality or positioned it as dangerous, Babygirl explores female desire with nuance and centers the psychological complexity of its protagonist without moral judgment.

Q: What message does the film convey about workplace relationships?

A: The film doesn’t offer simple messages but rather explores the complex power dynamics and consequences of workplace affairs. It shows both the appeal and the destructive potential of such relationships without definitively condemning or celebrating them.

Q: Did Nicole Kidman do her own intimate scenes?

A: Yes, Kidman performed in the intimate scenes herself, working closely with an intimacy coordinator to ensure all scenes were filmed safely and respectfully. She has spoken about the importance of the scenes to the film’s overall narrative.

Q: Does the film have a happy ending?

A: The ending is deliberately ambiguous. Romy and Jacob reconcile and work on their relationship, but the final scene suggests ongoing complexity in their sexual dynamic, with Romy still fantasizing about Samuel during intimate moments with her husband.

Babygirl represents a bold entry in contemporary cinema’s exploration of female sexuality and desire. Whether viewers find it empowering, disturbing, or some combination of both, the film succeeds in generating important conversations about the gaps between our public personas and private desires, the complexity of consent and power in intimate relationships, and the ongoing struggle many women face in articulating and pursuing their authentic sexual needs. Nicole Kidman’s courageous performance ensures that these conversations will continue long after the credits roll, cementing the film as a significant cultural touchstone in discussions about sexuality, power, and female agency in the modern era.