Last year was an amazing year for film, and so it took me a while (and still is) to work my way through the new films that caught my eye. One which I couldn’t wait to watch was Babygirl. However, it was not the film I was expecting it to be, and it has sadly become my worst watch of the year. Starring an actor whose work I love, Harris Dickinson, I was intrigued about his role across from Nicole Kidman, someone whose work I have not been obsessed with. The film follows a high-powered CEO who puts her career and family on the line after she begins an affair with a much younger intern.
The film’s synopsis reads: “Babygirl is an erotic thriller about a powerful, high-ranking CEO (Kidman) who begins a forbidden, age-gap sexual affair with her much younger intern (Dickinson), putting her career and family at risk. Directed by Halina Reijn, the film explores complex themes of female sexuality, desire, and the power dynamics within such a relationship, aiming to spark conversations about these often taboo subjects.”
I just didn’t get it. I had to watch it in two sittings because it was making me feel uneasy. I suppose in making me feel uneasy, it did what a thriller is supposed to do and perhaps that genre just is not for me. However, in this instance I would say that it just wasn’t done well. I was surprised because usually I know if I am going to enjoy a film, but I was so wrong in this case.
The storyline lacked any sort of depth, the main characters also felt very surface level and if their past lives had been explored further then perhaps I could’ve connected a bit more to the movie. Dickinson’s acting was still impressive and he was believable in the character, whereas with Kidman’s role, it almost felt like a copy paste of her previous performances.
I think the biggest thing that felt wrong about the film was the feeling it left me with. When you’ve just spent a couple of hours of your life watching a movie, you hope to feel something or to at least have had fun while doing so. In this case, I felt the film was unnecessary to make, leaving me confused and struggling to find any reason why I needed to watch it. You can’t win them all, though.
If you wish to make your own consensus of this film, it is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.