Babygirl: botox and submission
In what seems like a long Christmas season that goes on and on, we meet Romy (Nicole Kidman), the CEO of a prestigious robotics company. She has a perfect marriage with Antonio Banderas, who makes passionate love to her in the mornings and then she sneaks off and masturbates while watching sadomasochistic pornography on her computer, thus reaching the climax she has never been able to achieve with her husband. With this premise, "Babygirl" opens. Romy is a woman of half a century of age, with a lot of power in business and a lot of botox on her face, sexually unsatisfied since she has not found that 'sexual soul mate' who understands the peculiar nature of her instincts. Under that facade of a lot of power, what she really wants is to be submissive, to give in to other people's desires, to obey.
She finds that obscure object of desire in a young intern who comes to the company and whom she becomes his tutor without wanting to. The professional relationship suddenly turns into what she wanted, to be completely dominated, making it clear all the time that it is something consensual. The young man smelled that desire in her, as if it were something detected by a sixth sense. She knows that with this relationship she is putting both her marriage and her professional career at stake, but she continues to let herself go, to be herself even if it is for a few minutes.
Things get complicated when the tasks ordered by 'her master' become more risky and those closest to her such as her daughter, employee, and her own husband find out what is happening. A whirlwind of sordid emotions succumbs within her environment and she will have to put an end to the relationship that began one morning when Romy witnessed how the young man calmed down a furious black dog that tried to attack him on some crowded street in the metropolis.
Without revealing the deep symbols contained in the mix of robotics and eroticism according to its own director Halina Reijn, I highly recommend this intriguing film from the recently finished 2024.
stills and words TOM A.C.
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