Kidman’s workplace romp

Published January 10, 2025 5:16am ET



One is tempted to describe the latest film by Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) as a simple antifeminist parable. Called Babygirl, the new movie stars Nicole Kidman as a tech CEO married to a successful stage director in Manhattan. Unhappy in love, Kidman’s Romy Mathis begins an affair with an intern named Samuel (Harris Dickinson) and proceeds to blow up her entire life. Viewers of a certain age and bent, having shared the last half-century with Phyllis Schlafly, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and “tradwives,” will grasp the score at once: A woman has it all, hates it, and tears it apart. “Do you want to lose everything?” Samuel asks Romy during a revealing exchange. “You give that impression.” 

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