Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
Written and directed by Halina Reijn (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”); at forty-nine is well-studied on staving off aging formulas (Botox, Juvéderm, plastic surgery) and grappling to maintain an aura of youth; in “Babygirl” her weapon of choice is Nicole Kidman, who at fifty-seven, is as perfect a human specimen in existence; in “Babygirl” she is the quintessential contemporary woman: ivy league prodigy, founder of her own company, mother, wife and at the pinnacle of her career. She has it all apart from a successful intimate life; frustrated, marital satisfaction inconceivable with her husband; Antinio Banderas “Jacob” to Kidman’s “Romy”. Her proclivities swell well beyond the norm and a meeting with “Samuel” (Harris Dickinson) a post-adolescent intern, at her high-tech firm, is the electrifying trigger to her deviant propensities; the relationship is about power, relinquishing, abdication of dignity, and total glorifying humiliation, resulting in sexual satisfaction. Love is anathema, Samuel is her instrument, and he excels in the role of “Dom” to her Babygirl. The film sags in the center, gravitating towards complacency, misplacing its viability and vitality.
The realm of Dominatrix and Dom is a thriving universal enterprise, as it is in film: “Sanctuary”, “50 Shades of Gray”, “Belle du Jour”. “Venus in Fur” “Secretary”; the demand is there but “Babygirl” softens the message or loses sight of it; Romy is the only clearly defined character; Samuel is vague, foggy, indecisive and basically cruel, dogmatic and at heart a megalomaniac. Jacob, a simpleton, oblivious, wallowing in the malaise of the nineteenth century with Hedda Gabler.
The conclusion mimics the commencement, same old, same old.
TWO & ½ STARS!!
Peneflix
