This time last year critics were reviewing Fair Play, a drama about how office romance can go wrong. Now we have yet another drama about how office romance can go wrong, this time in the form of Babygirl. While right from the jump Babygirl has the advantage with a far superior cast, writers need to start breathing fresh ideas into these office romance films if they want audiences to turn out, especially during a packed holiday film season.
Babygirl follows fearless tech CEO, Romy (Nicole Kidman), as she enters into a problematic affair with her new intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson). The romance threatens her family, her career, and her mental fortitude. There’s a lot going on in Babygirl, but it lacks any kind of satisfying ending.
What many of these scandalous romance films have in common is an ending that provides some sort of twist, or at least an engaging finality to the proceedings. That is absent in Babygirl, but that’s not where the problems begin. During the first act of the film, audiences are introduced to a powerful CEO in Romy, and a seemingly sly intern in Samuel. He’s ready to seduce Romy with exactly the right words, as if he knew her kinks in advance. However, as the film progresses, Samuel’s motives are questionable become best, and there’s little reason to care about what happens to Romy.
The film establishes that while Romy has a happy home life with her husband and two kids, something is missing. She has never being sexually satisfied by her partner, which is already odd after decades of marriage. While at first Samuel seems to have a set agenda, with wicked precision, halfway through the film he doesn’t have any idea what he was actually doing, and makes a number of decisions that are completely out of character.
At its core the characters in Babygirl have no focus. With no focus, the audience continues to question why characters are acting in certain ways, especially when half of the movie a character is acting in a completely different manner, with no obvious reason for the drastic change to come. With no clear motives for any characters other than Romy, there’s no one for the audience to root for, or become invested in.
What makes matters worse is that the climax of the film offers virtually no payoff for the audience. The film builds for nearly two hours, only for essentially nothing of worth to happen at the end. There’s no satisfactory conclusion to all the debauchery that takes place. It’s almost as if the film is missing scenes that would explain character motivations, and how things ended up where they did by the time the credits roll.
Babygirl is written and directed by Halina Rein, who has a long career as an actress but limited success as a writer or director. That shows in the film, as the acting is solid, but the story is all over the place, and the direction is nothing to write home about. Rein wrote a powerful woman in Romy, but failed to provide an equally intriguing adversary with Samuel. With only half the pieces in place, Babygirl has its moments, but falls short in too many ways.
About Babygirl
Synopsis: A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much-younger intern.
Director: Halina Reijn
Writer: Halina Reijn
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 Hour, 54 Minutes
Bryan Dawson has been writing professionally since the age of 13. He started his career as a video game writer and has since worked for Random House, Prima Games, DirecTV, IGN, AOL, the British Government, and various other organizations. For GNN, Bryan taps into his passion for movies.
