The problem with Babygirl
Stop calling it an erotic thriller.
In the opening moments of Babygirl, Nicole Kidman’s character slips out of bed after having sex with her husband. She sprints down the hall to final destination, her enviable walk-in closet1, large enough to hold her prone body as she furiously masturbates to some good-girl-for-daddy porn on her laptop. Nothing that follows in the film—a tale of middle-aged self-discovery and a middling marriage drama parading as an erotic thriller—manages to be as stimulating or provocative. Halina Reijn’s third feature is dangerously light on eroticism and absent of any bodily suspense.
