When you’ve gotten all you want in the world of business, family and love, what else could you need? Romy (Nicole Kidman) is about to find out.
Not fully satisfied by her and Jacob’s (Antonio Banderas) lovemaking, Romy begins to explore different forms of sexual pleasure. This escalates when she meets Samuel (Harris Dickinson) a handsome young intern who begins working at the company where she is the CEO. Romy immediately recognizes there is something different about Samuel. He seems to understand exactly what people need and more importantly what they want. The result is the two entering into an intense affair where the dynamics of power and sex are mixed together as Romy both hesitantly (and willingly) enters into a new world of sensual experience.
The film is able to authentically (and sometimes awkwardly) show how Romy falls for the way Samuel treats her. As they begin to explore power in their relationship, convention is flipped and what is ‘normal’ can be thrown out the window. For Romy, this becomes exciting, intense and rejuvenating as she begins to live a life outside of the pattern of her working life, both domestic and commercial. There’s one club scene that stylistically delivers exactly the kind of feeling that Romy is entering into as she escapes her normal life and the results are fantastic. The film also doesn’t hide from both the pleasure a person can have from the double life Romy lives but also the fallout and tension that comes with her every choice to enter deeper into her affair with Samuel.
Nicole Kidman displays every emotion with ease as she is able to both have her character cover up her anxiety to the world while indicating with small movements and tense smiles that she is on edge. Will this risk she has entered into change her life in a way that will find more of her desires met or will her willingness to give up her power lead to a life she cannot handle?
Babygirl is playing at TIFF ’24. For more information, click here.
