The story of an adulteress, the portrait of a woman of power, the astonishing observation of the troubles of desire... Babygirl - which offered Nicole Kidman the Best Actress prize at the last Venice Film Festival - is a film as passionate as it is intoxicating.
Twenty-five years after Eyes Wide Shut, Nicole Kidman once again plays a powerful woman in New York, in a film centered on the question of desire and frustration. But unlike Stanley Kubrick's last feature, this time it's about her desire, which is constantly frustrated, despite a benevolent and, it seems, attentive husband (Antonio Banderas, formidable in a counterpoint role). But Romy (Kidman) can't say what she wants. It seems inaudible, too unhealthy, "abnormal", as she says several times. Especially for the brilliant businesswoman that she is, head of a successful logistics company, who defends the place of women in a milieu that has long been very male-dominated. But one day, a provocative young trainee (the always brilliant Harris Dickinson) awakens this buried desire...
Having made a name for herself with the excellent Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), Dutch filmmaker Halina Reijn hits very hard with this new feature, whose slightly perverse plot has fun making people feel uncomfortable and asking a thousand questions about consent to submission in a post-MeToo society. A twisted script with exemplary writing, sublimated by a mise-en-scène as pop as it is virtuoso - the astonishing original music by Cristobal Tapia de Veer, reminiscent of his scores for the two seasons of The White Lotus, will long be remembered.
But Babygirl is above all an ode to its leading lady. Nicole Kidman, whose best role in a long time, isn't afraid to play with her image: one long scene shows us all the injections and other treatments her face and body regularly undergo to maintain that perfect, botoxed look. One character even goes so far as to compare her to a fish, and she looks like a Barbie "businesswoman" doll left to age. But she is nonetheless an emotionally rich, sophisticated, fundamentally intelligent and ambitious heroine. A woman who is not a victim of the tyranny of image, but who, rather than rebel, has chosen to play with society's codes to keep as many trump cards in her hand as possible. We could write about Babygirl for a long time, as this film is a fine, exemplary analysis of the complexity of our modern world.
BABYGIRL BY HALINA REIJN
RELEASED IN THEATRES JANUARY 15, 2025
