VENICE, Italy—In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Nicole Kidman said she’s scared to see herself in her new film Babygirl because it is so sexually intimate, with sex scenes that have been described as “radically long.” Kidman isn’t wrong—the sex scenes in Halina Reijn’s film are tremendous in length, and it takes a certain kind of bravery that Kidman possesses to star in a film like this.

While Babygirl, which just premiered at the Venice Film Festival, is, in fact, tremendously horny, it’s also surprisingly funny—it's perhaps more of a sex-comedy-thriller than an all-out sexual thriller a la Fatal Attraction. (At one point, it feels as if Babygirl is going in this direction, but it laughs it off and gets back to business).

This is a film about negotiating power dynamics. You hear the sounds of Romy (Nicole Kidman) moaning before you see anything. In the opening scene, Romy has sex with her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas). When they finish, he says “I love you,” a fiery passion in his voice. “Love you,” Romy responds, but there’s a hollowness to her words. Romy slips out of bed and masturbates to pornography in another room. Romy has intense desires her husband cannot fulfill.

Who may be able to satisfy those deepest,........

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