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Join Telegram ChannelA business manager begins an S&M affair with her young intern. Nicole Kidman shines in this fable about sex and power… mischievous or completely hollow? First is divided.
FOR
The era seems to have a score to settle with the erotic thrillers of the 80s and 90s. Remakes in series (Fatal Connection, Presumed Innocent), comeback of Paul Verhoeven and Adrian Lyne… And here is Babygirlwith Nicole Kidman as a high-pressure business leader, the kind of role Michael Douglas could have played in the last century – but times have changed. The actress plays a control freak working in robotics, whose life, ordered to excess, but deprived of enjoyment, is turned upside down by her meeting with a sexy intern (Harris Dickinson), with whom she will explore the troubled lands of BDSM. Director Halina Reijn had already demonstrated in Bodies Bodies Bodies – fun slasher lit by the smartphones of a group of zoomers – its very personal, slightly sarcastic way of smelling the spirit of the times. Here she reuses this mischievous, gently trashy tone, to better reveal the puritanical side of the open-space thrillers from which she draws inspiration (Harassment in mind), while putting a little whip to the false audacity of soft romances in the Fifty Shades of Gray. But Babygirl is not content with its sociological flair, nor with the deliciously clippesque seduction of its staging: behind the state of sexuality after MeToo, there is the moving portrait of a woman who seeks possibility in sex of a healing. The film wouldn't exist without the phenomenal Kidman, who gets botox injections without anesthesia and is “body-shamed” by her daughter at breakfast (” You look like a dead fish “), laps milk on all fours… Intrepid, she re-discusses whole sections of her film here (fromEyes Wide Shut has And man created woman), royally asserts her acting policy, and reminds us that real movie stars are above all great masos.
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Let's take a step back in time. At the very end of the eighties, Tess McGill (Mélanie Griffith), the heroine of Working Girl found himself after many adventures in a vast office with a bird's eye view of Manhattan. The secretary couldn't believe she had finally become an executive while preserving her love story with the handsome businessman (Harrison Ford). Balance of power and happy ending. In 1989, this film by Mike Nichols had all the makings of an anticipation story, as parity at work was barely discussed. Nearly thirty years later, water has (a little) flowed under the bridges. The “working” has become “baby”, in the guise of a dressed-to-the-point Nicole Kidman (from floor to ceiling!) who also overlooks her world from the top of her ivory tower. This film by Halina Reijn, in a reverse spiral, aims to bring about a fall. A decline which will not happen through work (totally hidden) but through sex (displayed), with an eye towards this 80's erotic thriller whose Working Girl was a kind of soft emanation. Our powerful babygirl in question – cliché warning! – secretly dreams of being dominated by – cliche attention – a young intern with falsely sweet eyes (Harris Dickinson) If we keep the reference in mind, we can't help but imagine what a Mike Nichols would have made from such mayonnaise. He would undoubtedly have examined appearances and revealed the complexity of relationships where everything ends up mixing (cf. Closer) The human, stripped bare, becomes this infamous and domesticated beast capable of swimming in the brackish water of a nauseating ultra-liberalism. What exactly is Halina Reijn looking for, as everything about her appears plated? We wait in vain for the disturbance which would make everything falter and show something other than Kidman overplaying the actress with her face mistreated by the scalpel who is now asked to make it a game accessory. the true cruelty of a film that doesn't know what to do with it.
By Halina Reijn. With Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas… Duration 1h54. Released January 15, 2025