Babygirl (2024) * * *

Directed by:  Halina Reijn

Starring:  Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Sophie Wilde

I'll play amateur psychologist for CEO Romy Mathis (Kidman) and say that she is less interested in success than the danger of losing that success.  She's turned on by the possibility of having the rug pulled out from under her.  As Babygirl opens, she is having sex with her husband Jacob (Banderas).  It appears to be satisfying for both, but Romy then retreats down the hall and watches porn where a woman submits to a dominant man.  Romy is rich and powerful with a loving husband and family, but she soon finds she is attracted to intern Samuel (Dickinson), whose instincts tell him that Romy wants to be told what to do, and he tells her so in their first meeting.

Romy acts appalled by Samuel's candor, but soon she is meeting him in hotel rooms and engaging in role play and masochistic sex with the enigmatic Samuel.   As Romy delves deeper into the affair, Samuel begins dropping by her home and pushing the situation into Fatal Attraction territory.  Romy is of course fearful of exposure, not just because of the effects it'll have on her marriage, but the possibility of losing her job due to potential sexual harassment suits.  Samuel basically blackmails Romy into continuing their affair by threatening to ask for a transfer, which will surely cause questions to be asked.   The rub is:  Romy is also aroused and titillated by this possibility.

Nicole Kidman is a fearless actress who takes on challenging roles such as this.  She finds a way to touch on our sympathies even as she's being amoral and selfish, mostly because we are now involved enough to feel the same self-inflicted pressure she's under.  The setup and the first two acts are so tense and absorbing that the final act proves to be an unsatisfying payoff.   We surely didn't need a Fatal Attraction type of ending, and thank goodness we didn't get that, but Babygirl teems with compelling performances.  Dickinson and Kidman have palpable chemistry, and Banderas earns our sympathy as the cheated-on husband.  The movie just couldn't quite finish what it started because the tension is released suddenly by the rug being pulled out from under us.