TIFF 2024 Review: Babygirl – “an entirely different level of honesty”

Courtesy of TIFF

There’s been a run of movies lately depicting younger men with women older than them, and I’m all for it considering for years we have seen the reverse on screen.  Think of Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine in The Idea of You, Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman in A Family Affair. But there are a lot of differences between these rom-coms and Babygirl, an erotic thriller/drama which stars Kidman opposite Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness).  This film has a distinct undertone of danger, the knowledge that our protagonist’s actions could put everything she has worked for at risk.

Kidman plays Romy, a high-powered executive, respected and admired, especially by the younger women who also work at the company.  She has two daughters and a husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas) who, after almost two decades of marriage, still adores and desires her.  They have an active and passionate sex life. But, what Jacob doesn’t (yet) know is that Romy has never had an orgasm with him.  Instead, she shamefully retreats to another room after he’s done to finish herself while watching pornography that has a distinctive dominant/submissive theme.

So when Samuel (Dickinson) arrives at her office, an intern starting within the company, something is ignited within her.  He’s confident, cocky even.  The strong-willed young man picks Romy to be his mentor, and seems to know exactly what she needs.  “I think you like being told what to do,” he says to her, and she is only too happy to let him take charge, and to explore sexually what she has repressed for so long.

What writer-director Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) does so well here is to create a smart script that not only plays with power dynamics and explores female pleasure in a way few films do, but also injects humour and keeps things modern, even briefly mentioning consent.  It feels authentic. Yet, there is enough on the line here for Romy that when Samuel shows up at her family’s country house, or at a party where their closeness could be discovered, you realize there are true elements of an erotic thriller here as well.  Samuel’s power over Romy extends far past the hotel rooms where they meet.

Casting this film was essential to making it work, and all of the actors are incredibly captivating.  Kidman, who won this year’s top acting award at the Venice Film Festival for this role, is courageous yet vulnerable.  She is believable as the strong, composed executive, but also as the nervous, trepidatious woman experiencing a sexual awakening. Dickinson, whose career is already full of interesting choices, adds another complex role to his resume, for he needs to be able to match Kidman’s tone and yet dominate her in a way that is believable.  He needs to be intense, and yet we need to feel that Romy is never in physical danger, that he is not a predator.  And he succeeds in spades here.  Their chemistry is off the charts, and each of their interactions is incredibly sexy.

Yes, this is a sexy film! And at a time when there is a lot of chatter about sex in movies, this film seems well-timed to bring the sexy back, so to speak.  Some wonderful cinematography from Jasper Wolf and score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer (The White Lotus theme) only adds to the tone of the film.  There will certainly be some comparisons made to 2002’s Secretary, where Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character found her own sexual liberation, but Babygirl, by reversing the power dynamic, feels distinctly different under a female lens.  Romy has more to lose, but also perhaps more to gain.

While there is always a bit of a feeling of underlying threat, and there are some twists and turns, Babygirl avoids a lot of the pitfalls another erotic thriller might have made.  In its conclusion, the lessons learned by our main characters might be different than what you expect, ones of trust and the importance of communication in our relationships.  It’s about sexual liberation and the humanization of our needs even when they might not be ‘normal.’  Babygirl, like another film at TIFF this year, Nightbitch, isn’t afraid to comment openly about issues that women have not historically been open about, free of judgement and scrutiny.  It’s an entirely different level of honesty that is as liberating as Romy’s journey itself.

Babygirl had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival September 10, 2024.  For more information head to tiff.net.