Halina Reijn Wrestles With Control In Erotic Thriller “Babygirl”

Erotic thrillers are back.

In an electric explosion of passion, sexuality, and gender dynamics, Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn (Red Light, Bodies Bodies Bodies) tracks two super-charged and vulnerable characters Romy (Nicole Kidman) and Samuel (Harris Dickinson) who break most corporate and relationship norms when CEO Romy and her much younger intern Samuel embark on a steamy and tempestuous entanglement.

Rather than lingering on scenes of sexual voyeurism and kink, Reijn approaches Babygirl from the perspective of control. Who thinks they have it? Who actually has it? Who relinquishes it? Who demands it? And by how much? The topic is further dissected from the perspective of self-doubt of the characters asking if they should wield so much power anyway. Reijn spins a complex character dynamic which is a far cry from the crass master and servant archetypes often seen in these films. Instead, she opts for a more subtle, smouldering approach to the topic.

She also finds time for Romy and Samuel to confront their shame and internal demons during their psyche-opening fling.

Romy is a tightly-wound CEO who obsessively schedules her work and family life, Every second of every day is meticulously accounted for. On the surface, she’s a woman who seemingly has it all, but digging a little deeper, she may not. Enter Samuel, the intern who holds the key to her gilded cage and sets her free. The result is both exhilarating and breathtaking. How far will they go to push their boundaries and unshackle themselves from societal prison?

Reijn offers her assured answer to the male-dominated sexual thriller genre with Babygirl. “I decided in the beginning, I want to make a sexual film, but now I’m going to do it through female eyes. What does that mean and what does that look like?” 

Babygirl isn’t simply a titillating thriller teasing its audience. Reijn offers as much restraint as she does excess. She delicately balances the contradiction of sexual permissiveness with sexual prohibition. While both Romy and Samuel take nibbles from the forbidden erotic fruit, they are both rehabilitating their perceptions of themselves and learning to accept and even celebrate who they really are and what they want. Guilt and shame are overcome.

Reijn consulted one of the genre’s finest Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct) who offered her solid advice about balancing our animal with our human spirits. One cannot usurp the other. They must learn to co-exist in relative harmony. Can we relinquish shame for acceptance? Babygirl is also a meditation on identity. There are no villains or heroes here. Only explorers.

Romy is a woman conflicted by her own desires. How far will she go to satisfy her lover? Babygirl teases the see-saw dynamics between Romy and Samuel.

Then there’s the cool relationship between Romy and her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas). Her family life ticks over in autopilot and she can’t fully express what she wants from Jacob or their marriage. She’s not unhappy, but realizes there’s something off in her life. Jacob is helpless to fix their relationship because he’s trying to be the ideal supportive husband and father. He can’t help until Romy verbalizes what she needs from him.

Reijn excavates Romy’s backstory to posit if she’s a product of her childhood. Babygirl briefly flirts with Romy’s childhood in a sexually-liberated cult. Can her excessive freedom be tamed with excessive control?

Samuel shuttles between boyish naïveté and a middle-aged strategist as he navigates the affair. The characters are not swept up in a tumultuous cloud of unbridled lust. Everything is considered and approved. They know exactly what they’re doing and how it will end, although they don’t know exactly when.

There’s an interruption to their tryst in Esme (Sophie Wild) Romy’s assistant who discovers what her perfect ladyboss is up to. She blackmails them in an attempt to gain the upper hand. She both looks up to Romy and perhaps wants to take her down in a shifting feminist power dynamic without moral judgment. There are loftier themes to consider in Babygirl such as sexism. Women are still vastly under-represented in the corporate world.