2024   A24

Rated:  R

Length:  1  hr  54min

Drama ~ Romance ~ Erotic Thriller

Directed by:  Halina Reijn

Starring:  Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde and Antonio Banderas.

This Christmas Get Exactly What You Want………..

Nicole Kidman stars as Romy Mathis, The High powered CEO of a Robotic Process Automation Company in New York City. Antonio Banderas plays her husband of 19 years Jacob Mathis who is a theater director in the city. In the opening scene we see Jacob and Romy having sex, and then Romy leaves the bedroom and goes into another room. She grabs a laptop, lays on the floor and pleasure’s herself while watching porn. This sets the stage for the movie. Romy and Jacob have been married for nineteen years and as we hear later in the movie, Romy has never experienced an orgasm with Jacob.

Enter Samuel…..

As Romy is headed into work walking down a busy New York Sidewalk, an angry dog runs towards her. Frightened she stops in her tracks as she sees a stranger take something out of his pocket and calm the dog. Romy heads into work and a little while later her assistant Esme (Sophie Wilde) brings in a group of Interns and Romy sees the stranger who calmed the dog outside in the group. During a break Romy sees the stranger, who’s name is Samuel (Harris Dickinson) in the breakroom and approaches him, wanting to know what he had in his pocket to calm the dog. He replies, “A cookie”. Soon Romy seems to see Samuel everywhere and he tells her he wants Romy to be his mentor in the Intern program.

What follows is a confusing game of attraction, sexual fantasies and fetishes between Romy and Samuel. It is an awkward relationship and is never really clear who started it. It leaves you wondering what is really going on the whole time. They seem to be playing a game exploring certain roles, but it isn’t clear who initiated it. It could be Romy, not being satisfied at home and seeing an opportunity to explore her deep sexual desires and fantasies with a young intern, pays Samuel to help her explore those fantasies. Or it could be Samuel, seeing an opportunity to take advantage of Romy’s interest in him and move himself up the company ladder.

Or is it Jacob? I find it hard to believe that for nineteen years, Jacob didn’t realize that his wife and sexual partner was not really fulfilled and living a lie sexually. It seemed odd that Samuel would show up unexpectedly at the house twice and Jacob just didn’t appear that surprised. And the fight that Jacob and Samuel have just didn’t seem that intense to me, it seemed staged. Jacob is a Theater Director and stages plays and works with actors. It is possible that Jacob staged the whole scenario to give his wife a controlled affair to explore her fantasies with someone Jacob trusted to keep their marriage together.

Or was the whole affair staged by Esme who knew Romy and concocted a scheme using Samuel to move herself up the corporate ladder? You could go in any direction with those theories, but it did seem as though Esme approaching Romy to, in essence, blackmail her for a better position at the company was only after Samuel told her about their affair. That kind of rules out Esme having orchestrated the affair.

Whichever way the plot was intended, it does come across as very awkward. I didn’t really feel any great chemistry between Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, either because there wasn’t any or the whole affair was staged to begin with. I have seen Nicole in better sensual erotic movies with more chemistry and feeling. Dead Calm, Birthday Girl and Eyes Wide Shut come to mind. Babygirl also reminds me of Unfaithful with Diane Lane and Richard Gere, although I think Unfaithful is a way better movie.

So to wrap it up, for me it was just ok. The sensuality and fetishes were a bit over the top, I get they were exploring the power and submission thing but it just didn’t feel that real to me. Like a badly staged play. I didn’t think much of Harris’ Dickinson’s acting but then I haven’t seen him in anything else so perhaps it was just the awkwardness of the role in this movie. So yeah, meh……..