Romy (Nicole Kidman) is a high powered CEO with a successful husband (Antonio Banderas) and two teenage children. But when she meets Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a much younger intern at her company she finds herself in a torrid affair that caters to her deepest darkest fantasies. 

When we first meet Romy she is faking an orgasm for her husband of over twenty years before dashing off to watch BDSM pornography on her laptop to give herself the real thing. Romy is unfulfilled sexually but loves her husband, her children and her stressful but fulfilling job. 

Samuel senses something in her that is unfulfilled and starts to test the submissive tendencies that Romy craves but cannot admit to. As they dance around each other Romy exhibits both desire and fear at what she could lose by acting on that desire. And as their dalliances become full blown affair Romy has to face into who she truly is. 

Babygirl is a deeply erotic drama that attempts to portray the shame around sexual kinks and how they can be negotiated. It’s intensely sexy, features fearless performances, includes the perspective of the wounded partner and injects humour wherever possible. 

Nicole Kidman is flawless as Romy. Kidman is no stranger to complex and challenging roles and here she does a superb job of showing Romy’s shame and desires. Harris Dickinson matches her and also succeeds in showing a character who is not entirely self assured either. And Antonio Banderas does well in a role that requires him to sit in the background for the majority of the film giving perspective from outside of the focal affair. 

The film’s only missteps for me were an underplayed storyline about power dynamics in the workplace involving Romy’s assistant Esme (Sophie Wilde) and whether or not it really underlines that there is no shame in alternative desires. 

Overall though writer/director Halina Reijn whose last film was the excellent Bodies Bodies Bodies has delivered a thoughtful and incredibly sexy feature.