Babygirl
ベイビーガール
The Moonlight essay
CinemaBabygirl, and the Difference Between Surrender and LeverageRead the essayStoryline
The whole story, ending included.
A CEO who has faked every orgasm of her marriage submits to an intern; written and directed by a woman as a comedy of shame.
Romy Mathis runs an automation company in New York and has been married for years to Jacob, a theatre director. After they make love she slips into another room and brings herself to orgasm watching porn on her laptop; with him, she never has. On her way to the office one morning a loose dog lunges at her, and a young man calms it. He is Samuel, one of the company's new interns, and he picks her as his mentor.
In their sessions he needles her about power, and soon he is testing hers. When Romy worries that she is the one abusing her position, Samuel answers that one phone call from him could get her fired. In a shabby hotel room he takes the dominant role, and her orgasm is so strong that she sobs afterwards. The affair deepens. Samuel turns up at the family's country house to return a laptop and charms everyone; she orders him never to come again, and he threatens to ask for a transfer, which would raise questions. Romy tells Jacob she has never had an orgasm with him, then begs Samuel to go on.
He arrives at her younger daughter's birthday party with Esmée, Romy's assistant, whom he is dating. Esmée tells Romy she knows, and asks her to end it: few women reach jobs like hers, and she should be someone younger women can look up to. Romy confesses to Jacob, calling it a one-night stand with a stranger, and he is too hurt to hear what she needs. At the country house he finds her with Samuel and the two men fight. When Jacob calls female masochism a neurosis, Samuel tells him the idea is dated; Jacob has a panic attack, and Samuel holds him until it passes, then leaves.
Samuel takes a job in Japan. Encouraged by her elder daughter, Isabel, Romy goes back to Jacob. When a board member hints that he knows and invites her to his house, she tells him she is not afraid of him and orders him out. At home she and Jacob make love the way she has learned she wants, and she climaxes with him, picturing Samuel.
Starring
Nicole Kidmanas Romy Mathis
The chief executive of a New York automation company, long married and privately unfulfilled, who begins an affair with an intern.
Romy Mathis’s story
After sex with Jacob, Romy slips into another room and climaxes alone, watching porn; with him she never has. When Samuel, a new intern, tests her authority in their mentoring sessions, she kisses him, then meets him in a shabby hotel room, where his dominance brings an orgasm so strong that she sobs. She orders him away from her family's country house, tells Jacob she has never come with him, and begs Samuel to go on. Warned off by her assistant, Esmée, she confesses to Jacob, calling it a one-night stand with a stranger. After the two men fight and Samuel leaves for Japan, her daughter Isabel brings her home. She tells a board member who hints at the affair that she is not afraid of him, and she climaxes with Jacob, picturing Samuel.
Harris Dickinsonas Samuel
An intern at Romy's company who chooses her as his mentor and draws her into a game of dominance and submission.
Samuel’s story
Samuel first appears calming a loose dog that lunges at Romy in the street. In their mentoring sessions he needles her about power; when she worries that she is abusing hers, he answers that one phone call from him could get her fired. In a hotel room he takes the dominant role, then keeps pushing: he turns up at the family's country house and charms everyone, and when she forbids it, threatens to ask for a transfer. He takes her back once she confirms her submission, and brings Esmée, her assistant, whom he is dating, to her daughter's party. When Jacob finds them at the country house the two men fight; Samuel calls Jacob's view of female masochism dated, holds him through his panic attack, and leaves for a job in Japan.
Antonio Banderasas Jacob Mathis
Romy's husband, a theatre director who loves her and has never learned what she wants.
Jacob Mathis’s story
Jacob has shared Romy's bed for years without knowing that she has never climaxed with him, until she tells him so outright. When she then confesses an affair, calling it a one-night stand with a stranger, and tries to tell him what she needs, he is too hurt to hear it, and she moves out to their country house. He follows her there, finds her with Samuel, and the two men fight. When he calls female masochism a neurosis and Samuel tells him the idea is dated, he has a panic attack, and it is Samuel who holds him until it passes. Encouraged by their daughter, Romy comes back and apologises at his theatre for never saying what she wanted. Some time later, at home, he makes love to her the way she wants, and she climaxes with him.
Sophie Wildeas Esmée Smith
Romy's ambitious assistant, who is dating Samuel and works out what is going on.
Why it matters
Babygirl is about a woman who has spent a marriage performing a pleasure she does not feel, and about what it costs her to say so. Romy's wish to submit sits awkwardly inside a life in which she is the most powerful person in the building, and the film does not pretend the affair is harmless: she is the chief executive, he is an intern, the imbalance cuts both ways, and every scene turns on who could ruin whom. Halina Reijn, who wrote and directed it, puts shame at the centre and ends not with punishment but with Romy asking her husband for what she wants. Nicole Kidman won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at Venice for the role. The question it leaves is less about sex than about honesty: what a long marriage can survive once one person finally says what she wants.