The Australian-American actress won the acting prize at the 2024 Venice Film Festival for her role in Halina Reijn's erotic thriller. But have the critics been seduced?
A few months before the release ofEmmanuellea new erotic film that explores female desire is coming to the big screen. Babygirl is a thriller directed by Halina Reijn released on January 15, 2025. Nicole Kidman plays a CEO controlling all aspects of her life, professional and intimate. Unfulfilled on the sexual level, the arrival of an intern in his company (played by Harris Dickinson, seen in Without filter or Iron Claw) turns everything upside down and allows her to explore fantasies of submission that had previously been hidden… even if it means losing everything she has built.
In the United States, Babygirl enjoyed surprise success on social networks, with covers of certain sequences on TikTok, notably the one where Nicole Kidman drinks a glass of milk. The American media, such as Vanity Fair, praised the feature film, and in particular Nicole Kidman's performance “as disturbing as it is erotic”. Indiewire goes so far as to hail a “sexy, dark, daring work”. The film scores 76% positive reviews from the press on Rotten Tomatoes (compared to a much more mixed public review of 48%).
In France, it's a different story and the press is more divided on the subject of Babygirl. The erotic thriller finds its admirers, like Sud Ouest which praises the merits of a film that is “exciting, brilliant, not very Metoo”, emphasizing “the elegance of its staging” and the “boldness of its exploration of desire” . For the journalists from Première conquered (the film apparently divided the editorial staff), “behind the state of sexuality after MeToo, there is the moving portrait of a woman who seeks the possibility in sex “The film wouldn't exist without Kidman, phenomenal.” For Le Monde, “this trashy film” “succeeds in placing its story at the heart of current issues, by questioning the logic of domination against which it is necessary to fight.”
But other media are much more murderous. Le Parisien denounces the “old-fashioned, out-of-date and out-of-ground hyper-masculine fantasies” of a “heartbreaking film” which offers “such an embarrassing succession of scenes”. For 20 Minutes, which still praises the merits of Nicole Kidman's performance (she won the Best Actress Prize at the 2024 Venice Film Festival for this role), “the film disappoints with its less than daring sex scenes and its rather puritanical message, far from the expectations aroused by its promotion as a “sexy thriller”.” Same story with Le Figaro, which deplores the lack of suspense in the feature film, a “screenplay buzzing with implausibilities” and “rather ridiculous” scenes. It remains to be seen whether the temperature will rise further among the spectators.
Synopsis – Romy, CEO of a large company, has everything to be fulfilled: a loving husband, two fulfilled daughters, a successful career. But his meeting with a young intern working in his company turns everything upside down. She begins a torrid affair where she realizes her deepest fantasies, even if it means losing everything…
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