Back in the last century there was a workplace teen-oriented alleged comedy called Empire Records which opened with an employee taking the cash from the record store's safe then going to a casino where he proceeds to lose all the store's money. Watching this I remarked to the missus that this movie was set in an alternate universe where the people look like humans, but don't act in any way like real humans. This alternate universe appears to be the setting for Nicole Kidman's failed Oscar-bait run Babygirl. Wikipedia says it's an "erotic thriller", but just having nudity and sexual content doesn't equal erotic and there are zero thrills, but plenty of eye rolls.
Kidman stars as Romy Mathis, founder and CEO of a robotics company, who is married to theater director Jacob (Antonio Banderas), has two teen daughters - Nora (Vaughan Reilly) and Isabel (Esther McGregor, Ewan's daughter), the latter whom is gay and her parents are thrilled because of course - a gorgeous apartment in the city and mansion in the country, and for some reason an unhappy sex life. Despite the film opening with her appearing to be having happy fun times with Jacob, she later goes elsewhere in the apartment to look at porn on her laptop while bad touching herself to completion.
Things change with the arrival of Samuel (Harris Dickinson, A Murder at the End of the World), one of the new interns. She'd previously seen him tame a dog that was attacking a pedestrian and was impressed by him. He then approaches her saying he chose her to be his mentor through the corporate mentor program. She said she wasn't part of that (being CEO and all), but he insists and because she apparently doesn't look at her Outlook calendar and the plot has to happen, she takes the meeting and responds to his inappropriate behavior not with showing him the door, but embarking on a ludicrous sexual relationship where he orders her around and makes her demean herself to him.
When she makes half-hearted moves to break things off, he reminds her that he could destroy her life with a phone call to HR, but doesn't want to. So she goes along with the affair even when he shows up at her country place (allegedly to bring her work laptop) to sit with the family and shows up with her assistant, Esme (Sophie Wilde, Talk To Me), who is dating Samuel, and not-so-subtly lets her boss know she knows what's going on and needs more opportunities for women in the firm.
There is so much wrong with Babygirl it's hard to pick a starting point to tear it apart, but let's go with what the missus immediately sounded off about during the movie, the absolutely ridonkulous choice of Dickinson as the guy a smart, wealthy, powerful woman would risk her entire world for. He's not particularly handsome (we agree that Austin Butler would've at least made some sense) or interesting and is a jerk.
Even allowing for the premise that aging women want to prove they can snag a younger man - because Banderas is dog food or something (note: while he's not Desperado hot, he's still suave in the silver fox department) - he's not really a catch and the whole HR angle makes him even less valid an option. (If he was a cater waiter at some charity event she decided to bang in the coat check room would make more sense.)
The implication that this was all a set-up by her assistant in retribution for not paying her enough career attention requires a plan with a zillion single points of failure to execute flawlessly. If at any point Romy doesn't go for Samuel's advances, it's over. And how would she even know that Romy was susceptible to another man?
Dutch writer-director Helena Reijn apparently was inspired by sexual films like Indecent Proposal and Basic Instinct and possibly wanted to comment on women in power, women in unsatisfactory relationships - Romy says she's never orgasmed with Jabob in their two decades married; considering who she's married to, seems like a her problem for not even mentioning it - but does nothing with these seeds of ideas. I can think of so many different ways the story could've been told as an All About Eve meets The Assistant story, but as it exists Babygirl does nothing smart and so much dumb.
And bearing the brunt of this failure is poor Kidman, who demeans & exposes herself chasing Oscar only to have the final nomination slot go to a dude because Hollyweird wants to figuratively burn itself down with the public in addition to LA burning. She gives her all even when the script doesn't deserve it and as the missus asked, who thought this was a good idea? It wouldn't even cut it as an episode of Red Shoes Diaries.
Score: 3/10. Skip it.
