On Screen: “Babygirl”
Babygirl
I really don’t know how to review “Babygirl,” a senseless study of a woman who — after 19 years of marriage — has never admitted to her husband that she cannot orgasm without kinky S&M role-playing, which is odd since he’s a theater director.
Reminiscent of erotic thrillers like “9½ Weeks,” “Fifty Shades of Gray” and “Basic Instinct,” it’s all about sex and power. As controlling tech CEO Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman) is walking to work in Manhattan one morning, she’s sexually aroused by the sight of a young man calming a ferocious dog, which is obviously a metaphor about the wild, untamed beast within us.
It turns out that he’s Samuel (British actor Harris Dickinson), an impudent intern starting work at Tensile, her warehouse robotics company. Soon they’ve embarked on a spiky, steamy affair, which is particularly risky for her impeccable personal and professional career. But raw, reckless danger is what Romy thrives on.
“I think you like to be told what to do,” 28-year-old Samuel brazenly observes at one of their first workplace meetings. Later, after months of hooking up in hotel rooms with his subservient cougar boss, he notes: “I could make one call and you lose everything.”
These fetish fantasy-fueled sexual encounters are explicit and graphic — a sadomasochistic challenge which is obviously what appealed to bold, adventurous 57-year-old Kidman who — despite previous raunchy roles in “Dead Calm” and “Eyes Wide Shut” — projects an ice maiden image which she’s eager to defrost.
While Dutch writer-director Halina Reijn (“Bodies, Bodies, Bodies”) relates the entire psychodrama from Romy’s female perspective, she never delves into why Romy has never confessed her repressed desire for submissive game-playing behavior to her devoted husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas), who — ironically — is currently directing a production of Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.”
(That lack of conversation is reminiscent of “Disclaimer” in which Cate Blanchett’s shame-filled character never told her husband she was raped by a young man while on vacation in Italy.)
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Babygirl” is a frustrating 5, playing in theaters.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.
During her adult life, Susan has been on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie and drama critic, syndicating her reviews and articles around the world, including Video Librarian. She has appeared on American Movie Classics and Turner Classic Movies. In 2017, her book 150 Timeless Movies was published by Hannacroix Creek Books. Her website is www.susangranger.com.