Nicole Kidman Redefines Boldness in ‘Babygirl’ – A Provocative Drama Premiering at Venice Film Festival

Nicole Kidman Redefines Boldness in ‘Babygirl’ – A Provocative Drama Premiering at Venice Film Festival

While Nicole Kidman used to be one of the most lauded stars in the world for her bold and daring choices in film, throughout the past decade-plus, she’s mostly steered her career toward more conventional streaming television. At age 57, Kidman has probably become increasingly recognizable via the high-profile, limited series “Big Little Lies,” “Nine Perfect Strangers,” “The Undoing,” and “The Perfect Couple.” For all their commercial achievements, these series cut a boldly different contrast from previous work with inventors like Jonathan Glazer, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Lars von Trier.

But her new movie, “Babygirl,” is a radical about-face back to the more daredevil ways of her earlier days. Teaser sessions at the Venice Film Festival, this A24 production is a racy indie piece that renews and underpins Kidman’s status as an audacious thespian. There is considerable debate and anticipation building over “Babygirl” already as it gears up for its Christmas theatrical run.

Written and directed by Halina Reijn, “Babygirl” opens with Kidman’s character, Romy, faking an orgasm. Romy is a powerhouse CEO who seems to have everything going for her: she is successful, has a great husband who adores her—Antonio Banderas—and two rambunctious girls. But little do they know, she is craving a lot more than routine can provide. The moment he drifts off to sleep, Romy breaks out the S&M pornography and plunges in, uncaring about her routine.

Romy’s desire to break loose from her well-planned life puts her in the orbit of Samuel, played by Harris Dickinson, an intern in the office who refuses to subscribe to the dynamics that are supposed to play between them. Their first meeting outside the office—where Romy catches sight of Samuel soothing a stray dog—spirals quickly into an affair that is provocative and charged with a fraught power dynamic.

Even as Romy’s life has been one of brutal imagery, she finds her fantasies impossible to embrace without feeling guilty- caught between her created public image and what is private. Nic Kidman, who has never shied away from sexually explicit films, including the watershed “Eyes Wide Shut,” called the explicit sex scenes in “Babygirl” some of the most challenging work she’s ever done. In a follow-up story with Vanity Fair, she said that she felt vulnerable to such a degree that she even feared the audience’s reception.

Kidman said Reijn got her through a performance that is vulnerable on all levels. Reijn, whose “Bodies Bodies Bodies” premiered at Slamdance two years ago, said “Babygirl” is a movie about whether you can love yourself with all the parts of your body and all of your attributes that you may find shameful. She proudly noted the film’s look at female sexuality and how the orgasm gap remains the same today: “All beings have a beast living inside. For women, we have not gotten a lot of space yet to explore this behavior.”

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Acclaimed already for “Triangle of Sadness” and about to face increased interest for “Babygirl,” Dickinson said the intimate scenes in a film are, per se, vulnerable. Her director, Reijn, likewise defended the explicitness of the film as necessary and enlightening—from a faked orgasm right through the real ones. “Everybody is worthy of a good orgasm,” she said, while the film provokes, yielding insight into the sexual exploration at hand.

Conclusion

“Babygirl” emerges as a bold and provocative film that pushes boundaries and explores complex themes of desire and self-acceptance. With Nicole Kidman delivering one of her most daring performances and Halina Reijn’s insightful direction, the film confronts the often-ignored aspects of female sexuality.