Babygirl

For moviegoers willing to submit, Babygirl intimately explores eroticism in a way that few American films do these days.

Nicole Kidman brings an audacity and conviction to the title character of this lurid and lascivious melodrama about female sexuality, gender politics, and power dynamics.

However, since the roles are essentially defined by their basic instincts and carnal desires, it’s muddled as a deeper examination of morality and self-fulfillment.

Appropriately enough, the film opens with Romy (Kidman) having an orgasm. Indeed, she’s got plenty in her life to make her satisfied, from her stable marriage to a playwright husband (Antonio Banderas) to her two precocious daughters to her thriving business career.

Romy has broken barriers as the high-powered CEO of a New York automation firm she founded years ago. She seems to have a progressive approach to employee interactions, although her executive assistant (Sophie Wilde) is overdue for a promotion.

Yet beneath the surface, her unfulfilled desires have remained a secret. She finds a willing partner in Samuel (Harris Dickinson), an intern half her age, with whom she locked eyes even before he seeks her mentorship.

The moment when they first acknowledge their mutual attraction is tense and uncomfortable. He’s an alpha male and she prefers submission, but she knows she’s not supposed to give up control. Everything about their whirlwind affair is inappropriate, yet, at least for Romy, irresistible.

As Samuel becomes more brazen in his advances, complications ensue while suspicions grow among those around them, and threats of exposure threaten to compromise all Romy has accomplished.

The intentions here are more playful than provocative. The cheeky inclusion of George Michael’s 1990s ballad “Father Figure” during a steamy montage provides proof for those who hadn’t figured it out to that point.

The screenplay by Dutch director Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) seems uncertain whether it wants to normalize Romy’s behavior as an act of empowerment or condemn her lapse in judgment. Where does she draw the line between her personal obsessions and her professional obligations?

That ambiguity is frustrating, although Kidman’s committed portrayal leverages Romy’s vulnerability without compromising her intelligence or autonomy.

Still, plenty of intriguing questions remain unanswered regarding backgrounds and motives in Babygirl, which ultimately is more sizzle than substance. And maybe that’s all it was meant to be.

Rated R, 114 minutes.