For me and my roommates weekly Wednesday movie night, we selected Babygirl. For those of you who may not be familiar with the film, Babygirl details the affair between a powerful CEO, played by Nicole Kidman, and her young intern Samuel, played by Harris Dickinson. Despite being married to a loving husband, she risks it all when she meets her young attractive intern, who shows her a darker side of herself. While many people will watch this movie and see it as another erotic film, I noticed darker undertones.
Image from YouTube, watch trailer here!
First I want to dive into my analysis of Nicole Kidman’s character, Romy. The movie starts off with her being unsatisfied sexually by her husband, which subsequently leads her to find someone who can satisfy her. Her character is interesting because she is portrayed as a powerful woman, but ends up finding someone “beneath” her. Not only that, but throughout her relationship with her intern, she discovers that she likes to be told what to do. This challenges her character’s desire for power and success as she is being controlled by someone who is younger and less experienced in her field. It promotes the message that although a woman may appear fierce, she’s powerless against a man telling her what to do.
The goal of the movie was to romanticize relationships with large age gaps as well as morally grey workplace relationships, but it ended up promoting rape culture. The writers made Romy into a power hungry CEO who enjoyed having no power in the bedroom. Samuel made her do dehumanizing acts such as drinking milk from a bowl on the floor and demanding her to open her legs when instructed. It was if the writers were trying to make another Fifty Shades of Grey, which, by the way, also promotes rape culture. The spicy scenes in this movie were overall hard to watch and just made my friends and I uncomfortable.
Image from mxdwn
Harris Dickinson’s character, Samuel, was also very complex. Romy comes face to face with him in the office on his first day. Throughout the movie he is seemingly irresistible to Romy and even after he shows up to her house and hangs out with her family, she can’t stay away from him. His actions were all red flags yet Romy needs to be with and risks everything for him. It’s honestly a tired storyline and has been used way too many times. We are constantly seeing movies with the mysterious brooding man who doesn’t have many redeeming qualities, and the interesting talented woman who can’t seem to get enough of him. Not only is it unrealistic, but it promotes the idea that women need to be spectacular to please a man, while the man can do what he wants and still get the girl.
Towards the end of the movie Romy’s husband, Jacob, discovers her and Samuel and confronts them. The two men end up in a physical altercation that leads to a discussion where Jacob tells Samuel that he thinks he was abused by his wife and even ends up crying into Samuels arms. Somehow, he still takes her back and the movie ends with her finally being satisfied sexually by her husband. I really wanted to like this movie, but honestly it was trying too hard to be erotic and the plot kinda fell flat. The whole movie was essentially about her being unhappy in the bedroom with her husband. I kind of felt like the movie didn’t really have a point so they tried to save it with big actors and make it erotic. Although I was excited to see this movie, I was disappointed with the message it promoted and its overall unexciting plot.
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