Kidman – and chemistry – drive provocative ‘Babygirl’
There are few movie stars who have been as prolific as Nicole Kidman. In fact, the Australian star of “Babygirl” – the slick erotic thriller by Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn now in theaters – has been so busy in recent years (23 films in the last decade, and that’s not even counting her television work or her gig as celebrity spokesmodel for the AMC Theater chain) that it’s become a running gag in the popular conversation.
It even emerged as a punch line for Golden Globes host Nikki Glaser earlier this month. Make no mistake, though, there’s a reason for her continued presence as one of Hollywood’s most valuable players, and “Babygirl,” which pushes her to exhibit the kind of vulnerability rarely even expected of performers half her age, is ample proof of that.
In the film, Kidman stars as Romy Mathis, the CEO of a New York tech company – an Amazon-style purchasing hub where order fulfillment is handled exclusively via robotics – whose marriage to a renowned theater director (Antonio Banderas) works everywhere but in the bedroom.
When Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a much-younger new male intern at the company to whom she is already attracted, requests her as his mentor as part of a company leadership program, she finds herself drawn into an affair, fueled by the Dom/sub sexual dynamic of her fantasies, which compromises her position of power in the company almost as much as it satisfies the unmet needs of her personal life.
