Halina Reijn’s Venice-conquering follow-up to the cult sensation Bodies Bodies Bodies casts a fearless Nicole Kidman as Romy, a quasi-parodic having-it-all mommy chief executive embroiled in an entirely inappropriate office romance. We say romance. That doesn’t quite cover the hot erotic mess between Romy and a company intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson). We guess ordering someone to drink milk like a kitten comes under the broader umbrella of BDSM.
Reijn, the film’s writer as well as director, maintains a near-impossible tightrope between earnest female desire and high camp. An opening gambit introduces Romy and her dashing, attentive theatre-director husband (Antonio Banderas) in the bedroom. She retreats, postcoitus, to another room to masturbate furiously to incest porn. So far so discontented wife. Did we mention that he’s directing a version of Hedda Gabler?
Romy’s picture-perfect life includes two loving teenage daughters (Esther McGregor and Vaughan Reilly), the command of a tech multinational that looks like Amazon with robots, and a fabulous wardrobe. In a wild sideswipe at having-it-all culture, Romy packs lunches for the kids and even fishes a dead skunk out of the pool at the family’s country retreat. Jasper Wolf, Babygirl’s cinematographer, picks out the most lush tableaux in a film that revisits the 1980s erotic thriller and high-end soap opera.
Romy’s control is immediately challenged by Samuel, a cocksure underling who continues to push her towards greater transgressions, often during office hours. Their ill-defined erotic tangling is counterpointed by fear for Romy’s job, marriage and reputation.
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Risk and bondage are seldom as playful as they are in Babygirl. Outrageous musical cues – George Michael’s Father Figure, Mozart’s Requiem – and permanent Christmas decorations amplify Reijn’s sly, sexy sense of humour.
Kidman rightly took the Volpi Cup home from Venice International Film Festival for her performance. She finds the perfect scene partner in Dickinson, who, following impressive turns in Triangle of Sadness and The Iron Claw, may be the most versatile young star on the planet. Buckle up.
Babygirl is in cinemas from Friday, January 10th
