'Babygirl' is an erotic drama with eyes wide open

Nicole Kidman gets her best role in years in provocative film.

Every 25 years, it seems, Nicole Kidman makes an erotic drama about ultra-wealthy New Yorkers at Christmastime. In 1999, she and then-husband Tom Cruise made “Eyes Wide Shut” with Stanley Kubrick. Now, in Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl,” she plays a high-powered executive who enters into a sadomasochistic relationship with an enigmatic intern (Harris Dickinson).

“Babygirl,” like “Eyes Wide Shut,” is sexually frank; the opening scene features Kidman’s Romy faking an orgasm with her doting husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas), then having a real one while watching porn on her laptop.

But it reminded me more of another great Kidman movie, Jonathan Glazer’s 2004 film “Birth,” in which Kidman plays a woman (another rich New Yorker) convinced that her late husband has been reincarnated into the body of a young boy. In both “Birth” and “Babygirl,” the other person is really just a vessel for Kidman’s character to pour her obsessions into.

In “Babygirl,” the real action isn’t in the bedroom, but the raging, conflicting emotions playing across Kidman’s face. For the last few years, Kidman has seemed focused on starring in a limited series on every single streaming service (when will she star in a made-for-Tubi miniseries?). But “Babygirl” finally gives her a role worthy of her abilities, the way she can meld exquisite poise and primal ferocity like few actors can.

Powerful boss, loving wife, doting mother – Romy plays all the roles in her life to perfection, which leaves little room for anything that’s actually hers. The workplace in particular – an amorphous Amazon-like company with many tentacles – feels particularly suffocating, as Romy has to live by meaningless corporate buzzwords like “transparency” and “radical honesty” while completely subsuming her true nature. It looks exhausting.

When Samuel, a young fresh-face intern, arrives in the office, he alone seems to intuit her true self. With clandestine smirks and seemingly innocent asides in the break room, Samuel gets through her defenses and insinuates himself into her imagination. In some ways, these are the best parts of “Babygirl,” before the relationship truly starts, as a flushed Romy tries to maintain the upper hand over her subordinate, even as the temptation to take the plunge grows unbearable.

After they finally lay their cards on the table (“I think you like to be told what to do,” Samuel tells Romy matter-of-factly), “Babygirl” becomes a nervy, stylish dance between the two characters, power shifting back and forth. While the hotel room encounters are simultaneously humiliating and empowering for Romy, what really seems to tantalize her is the risk of public humiliation over the affair, at risking everything she’s built for the sake of her darkest desires.

At times, “Babygirl” seems to flirt with turning into a full-bore ‘90s-style erotic thriller – will Samuel try to ruin Romy? Will Romy try to ruin Samuel? But Reijn’s nuanced screenplay holds back from full melodrama, instead more interested in what’s going on in Romy’s mind.

In focusing on the interior world, Reijn does struggle a little in finding a satisfying conclusion for “Babygirl.” And I wish the supporting characters around Romy, even the enigmatic Samuel, were fleshed out a little more. But it’s a provocative film, elevated by Kidman’s fearless performance. Talk about radical honesty.

“Babygirl” opens Christmas Day in theaters. In Madison, it will play at Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, AMC Fitchburg 18 and Flix Brewhouse Madison.