A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much-younger intern.

‘Babygirl’ is an erotic psychological thriller about a powerful female CEO who finds herself being seduced by a young intern, with Nicole Kidman delivering a fully committed performance in the central role. Her character, Romy Mathis, is the CEO of a robotics company, and on the surface her life is perfect – a loving husband, nice children, a great job, and an upstate manor to go alongside the New York penthouse apartment. She doesn’t go looking for an affair, but from the outset we know she isn’t fully satisfied as ‘Babygirl’ sets its stall out for the type of movie it intends to be with a masturbation scene to some porn after some (presumably) unsatisfying sex with her husband (Antonio Banderas).

When she meets intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson, becoming a fine and varied actor), she initially has her ‘boss’ exterior on but she starts to find herself intrigued and turned on by the confidence Samuel displays, and this develops into a full blown affair where the risk of losing everything is part of the attraction. I was half expecting this to become a ‘Fatal Attraction’ for the modern era from the initial setup, but it is more interested in sex and power dynamics and there’s a great scene where Samuel turns the power dynamic on its head by saying he holds the power as he could get her fired – this only turns Romy on even more.

There’s a really intriguing movie setup here, but despite superb performances (Banderas is also great), the movie around them is lacking. It doesn’t really go anywhere, I didn’t buy some of the character motivations, and the regular appearances of Samuel at what appeared to be family functions felt like a plot contrivance. It has some great moments (the ‘power’ scene as mentioned), and it is always a thrill to see Kidman put herself fully out there, but I felt ‘Babygirl’ was a missed opportunity if anything – a movie that could have been something special, but ultimately, is merely alright.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Halina Reijn

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Sophia Wilde, Gaite Jansen, Esther McGregor, Vaughan Reilly, Izabel Mar and Victor Slezak

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt30057084/