“Babygirl” is about the risky sexual transgression of a woman supposed to have all. While not fully delving into what really makes her tick, the movie intrigues us with the oddly dynamic interactions between her and her much younger sex partner, and it is a rather shame that the movie hesitates to go further with its lurid and disturbing sexual elements later in the story.  

 Nicole Kidman plays Romy Mathis, the female CEO of some promising robotic automation company in New York City. As preparing for a very important moment for her company, she is introduced to a bunch of new interns, and her attention is drawn to Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a handsome lad she incidentally encountered not long before the formal introduction between them. At that time, something about him tantalized her, and he seems to be aware of that even though he does not signify much on the surface.

After Romy is assigned to Samuel as his mentor during the following internship, we come to sense more of the weird sexual tension between them. As Romy gets attracted more to him, Samuel seems to toy with her in one indirect way or another. As they continue to push and pull each other, it looks like he wants to play some morbid game of power and desire, and she is quite willing to go along with that when he makes a small but significant forward move later.  

What happens between them in a rather cheap hotel room will alternatively fascinate and disturb you for good reasons. It is apparent from the beginning of the story that Romy has nurtured a kinky sexual fantasy involved with subjugation and obedience, and Samuel seems to be the one who may fully satisfy her at last. Even though she hesitates more than once, she cannot help but do whatever she is driven to do by him, and he seems to be enjoying this as much as she does.

Needless to say, their relationship is totally inappropriate in more than one aspect, but Romy still cannot help herself. No matter how much she tries to draw the line between herself and Samuel, she always finds herself attracted to their kinky play of sex and power, and then, to her little dismay, Samuel also begins to cross some lines bit by bit.

 As observing more of how happy and stable Romy’s private life with her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas) and their two daughters, we wonder more about the psychological motivation behind her increasingly tricky sexual transgression. At one point, it is implied that she had a rather unconventional childhood in the past, and that seems to be the origin of her growing desire for being subjugated, but the screenplay by director/writer Halina Reijn, who previous made “Bodies Bodies Bodies” (2022), does not provide any simple explanation. It simply presents her behaviors and feelings on the screen, and this surely generates more intrigue for us.

However, the movie stumbles more than once during its last act, where the situation between its two main characters becomes rather mellow and soapy. Compared to all those odd and kinky moments unfolded between them, what eventually happens later in the story feels quite anti-climactic in comparison, and it looks like the movie itself gets scared right before going further along with its two main characters. In case of a subplot involved with one of the female employees working under Romy, it ends up being half-baked despite some interesting potential shown at the beginning, and that is another disappointment in the movie.

Nevertheless, there are still some good elements to engage us, and one of them is the committed performance of Kidman, who incidentally received the Best Actress award when the movie was shown at the Venice International Film Festival in last year. Although we never get to know much about what is really behind her character’s dark impulse, Kidman ably handles several key moments of naked emotions besides showing considerable commitment, and the result is another notable performance to be added to her admirable acting career. 

On the opposite, Harrison Dickinson, who has been more notable during last several years since his breakthrough turn in Eliza Hittman’s “Beach Rats” (2017), is simply fabulous as subtly suggesting the unpleasant sides of his elusive but compelling character. Right from his very first scene in the film, he holds his own place well in front of his co-star, and he is particularly effective whenever his character says one thing but also seems to be suggesting the other thing.

Around Kidman and Dickinson, Reijn places a number of good performers, though most of them are limited by their rather thin supporting parts. While Antonio Banderas, who could have played Dickinson’s character if the movie had been made around 30 years ago, is mostly stuck with his thankless role, Sophie Wilde, Vaughn Reilly, and Esther McGregor (Yes, she is the daughter of Ewan McGregor) leave some impression despite their under-developed characters.

Overall, “Babygirl” attempts to be a mix of Luis Buñuel’s “Belle de Jour” (1965), Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher” (2001), and a bit of Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999), but the result is not satisfying enough for recommendation. Although its first two acts are fairly tantalizing, what followed next fizzles to my disappointment, and I would rather recommend any of the three films mentioned above.