Babygirl

Fatal Attraction, 9 1/2 Weeks, Unfaithful, 50 Shades etc - one of these moody, erotic films comes along about once a decade. Everyone either gets off a little, clutches their pearls or sees it for it is - a sexual fluff piece. They are almost always shot really gracefully and the cinematography is also always on point. Fine acting and a smoking hot couple for everyone in the audience to have a little something. The difference here is the all woman collaboration which was probably a really attractive draw for these actors - to see how this film in a genre dominated by Adrian Lyne compares. I can't believe I'm going to say this because I really enjoy her but I don't think Kidman was the right casting for the lead. She's beautiful, aging beautifully and has give some really good performances over the years - I didn't like this one. And the dude is cute but a little creepy too. It was entertaining and a little jaw dropping but the story and especially the ending was really clunky.

A lot has been said about Babygirl, mostly involving Kidman's performance. The remainder of chatter has been about the uniqueness of its story and how it pushes boundaries around this topic. Unfortunately I have issues with both of those talking points: yes, Kidman does push herself to new territory she has not necessarily been to before as an actor, but it's really just her very personal artistic growth but not one the audience actually shares in. This story/script doesn't really cover anything new. It's basically an older woman in power cheating on her husband with a much younger man. I've seen this story numerous times before and some of them were better told. Sure, their specific sexual dynamic is not as common but it just all seemed so familiar. If it were a lesser known actress in the lead novel one would be talking about Babygirl, because it just doesn't warrant it. As for Kidman's performance, she does nail the sex scenes quite well but otherwise her character isn't that interesting and she's done much better work in numerous other films.

In the genre of "erotic thriller" it is typically the male that is portrayed as the cheating spouse who gets caught up with the femme fatale.

Here, the role is reversed... it's the middle-aged career woman seeking sexual satisfaction outside her marriage with a younger co-worker.

Despite what some reviews here suggest though, this is not an audacious concept. It has been mined in such movies as Unfaithful and Ryan's Daughter.

And for a movie being marketed as an erotic thriller/mystery, there's none of that here. It's just a straight up drama more in the vein of 9-1/2 Weeks than movies such as Fatal Attraction or Body Heat.

There's a hint of what could have been in just one scene where Kidman's philandering corporate officer and her younger lover threaten each other with exposure. Which of them has the better ammo? We'll never know because the subject is never broached again.

Kidman deserves nods for leaning hard into her role as the unsatisfied wife who has kept a lid on her darker desires during the course of her marriage. Unfortunately, the younger man she takes on, Harris Dickinson, is no match for her. He doesn't have the gravitas or screen presence to suggest that Kidman's character would be at all interested in him.

An okay one-of watch for Kidman's performance.

It's a drama about sexual fantasy and control set in December in modern New York City. The family in question is 50-ish high-powered executive Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman), her Broadway play director husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas), and their two teenage daughters, Isabel (Esther McGregor) and Nora (Vaughan Reilly). Romy is highly successful and innovative at her job but sexually unsatisfied in her marriage.

Romy meets Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a 25-ish intern at her company, who she is attracted to because of his assertive behavior. His behavior and her fantasies collide in a relationship with predictable problems, including Samuel also dating Romy's assistant, Esme (Sophie Wilde). After things get out of control, there is climactic conflict and resolution.

"Babygirl" is a virtuoso Nicole Kidman performance. That's the best that I can say for the film. Harris Dickinson is adequate as a manipulative jerk, as is Antonio Banderas as a preoccupied husband. Esther McGregor has a nice little subplot in the film. "Babygirl" is no feminist movie, and there are no attractive characters. The film's ending is superficial and ludicrous. The cinematography is creative at points, and the sex scenes are not graphic. However, any "truth" in "Babygirl" is lost in the unrealistic ending.

Nicole Kidman is giving a performance in "Babygirl" that no doubt many people will be calling "brave," mostly because it suggests that women over the age of 50 (gasp!) like to have sex and maybe even like to get kinky once in a while.

She does give a good performance, and it's the movie's biggest selling point. It's a shame that by the time the film is over her performance has been diluted by a muddled screenplay that doesn't know what it wants to say about gender dynamics or the sexual power play between men and women. Maybe confusion is the point, because Kidman's character doesn't completely know what she wants. She enjoys her place as a powerful female leader in the professional world, but she also enjoys relinquishing that power in the bedroom and giving into submissive fantasies. But only up to a point -- submissiveness for women can quickly veer into uncomfortable territory if taken too far by the man they're with. Scary can be fun, but after a certain line is crossed, scary is just scary.

I applaud a film that's honest about female sexuality, but I wish the topic had been given a better movie than this.

Grade: B.