Nicole Kidman's electric erotic thriller goes way beyond fun

It's easy to get excited about a thriller, especially an erotic one. The genre is designed to provoke this response in us. But with Little baby,
writer and director Halina Reijn delivered an erotic thriller so confident and so complete that it also left me excited to this. I can't wait to see this film released into the world. It feels calibrated exactly for its time.

It is undoubtedly a speech grenade – or rather, a pathogen. Little baby sees Romy (Nicole Kidman), a powerful CEO who is sexually dissatisfied with her happy marriage, begin an affair with Samuel (Harris Dickinson), one of her new interns. This same premise pushes several buttons of the day: sex scenes in films; age difference relationships; work matters between bosses and subordinates. But Reijn doesn't just explore these questions, she invokes discussion around them to manipulate our expectations. And thrillers are about manipulating expectations.

Babygirl is much more than an erotic thriller

But gender is also just a tool for Little babyis up for grabs, and calling it an erotic thriller is only partially true. It's also a relationship comedy, a workplace drama, and a late-stage coming-of-age story. Each of them comes with a general shape, and we are always aware of the “roles” that each character occupies. But these do not have rigid boundaries and often intermingle.

Romy wants to be dominated by Samuel, but when he gives her an order, sometimes the CEO responds. Sometimes the vulnerable woman does this. Sometimes, usually when she mentions his age, she feels protective of him in a way that (to Samuel) is uncomfortably maternal. Each of these dynamics comes with different levers of power, and part of the fun of Little baby It's never knowing which one they're going to pull.

Babygirl is a meal for Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson

And they make the most of it

Narratively, it keeps us on our toes. It can be difficult to imagine what will happen next without a fixed understanding of how to view these characters. Thematically, this film surprisingly brings this film closer to real life. Any two people in any type of relationship are not limited to one role, nor can they be truly compartmentalized. Little babyThe characters in are as incapable of keeping things straight as anyone in their situation would be.

I thought this was brilliant, in conception and execution. Despite its clear gender packaging, Little baby is essentially character drivenits shape is determined by who each character chooses to behave at any given time. This forces us to really pay attention to these people and look beyond their easy-to-digest packaging. We are submerged in the moral darkness that Romy finds herself in, where our judgment is not so easily made and we are forced to find our own way. But the film itself remains remarkably clear about the complexity on display.

This is also a fantastic platform for great acting. Kidman and Dickinson are given roles that require layers of performance to put on and take off like clothes, and they inhabit them immaculately. Romy is defined by internal conflict, all of which is readable in Kidman. Traces of these emotions ripple across her surface as she does her best to hide them. Samuel is also changing, but in a different way. It's his calm, collected physicality that draws Romy to him, and it's fascinating to watch how this develops over time.

Truly, everyone Little baby It's fascinating to watch. There's a very clear perspective to the film's making, and while I focused on Reijn's more thoughtful touches, the defining characteristic for many may be a wicked sense of humor. Laughter came easily and often for me and the audience I watched it with – sometimes at the characters, sometimes at them, but always at the film. It's as if we are being reminded that, no matter how serious the issues are, this should be fun. And it is. But be prepared to face much more.

Little baby had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and is now showing in cinemas. The film is 114 minutes long and is rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and language.