An HR review of Babygirl may not be words that you could have predicted would be strung into a sentence, but as your nosy neighbourhood advisors, we take our job of broaching uncomfortable topics very seriously. The negative effects of a workplace romance may be easy to brush aside in the thrill of the moment, but the consequences often catch up to you quickly.
Age-gap romance meets illicit workplace affair, Halina Reijn’s 2024 movie Babygirl is a controversial release of the highest order. Serving drama, debauchery, and uncensored thrills on a platter for fans of Nicole Kidman and the enemies of Antonio Banderas, the movie rocked many a boat directly on release, pulling moviegoers into theater seats for an experience meant solely to be watched in the dark. A thorough critique of Babygirl world requires us to pull out terms that may not be safe for a discussion with your local HR team, but what we can do is take a closer look at the concept of workplace relationships and why the thrill of the moment may not be worth the months of unpleasantness that often follow soon after.
Presenting a review of Babygirl (2024) from the perspective of HR, a resource that no one asked for, but needs to read through all the same. (Image: Babygirl A24 Trailer)
Babygirl Film Analysis: HR’s Take on Why Workplace Relationships Are Often Doomed to Fail
While the internet discusses whether to get rid of HR departments, any analysis of the film Babygirl will tell you precisely why organizations will choose to keep them around. Workplace relationships are neither new nor surprising, with many having found love in the darkest of places since the beginning of time. The sterile desks and pallid overhead lighting in your workplace hardly seem like the right setup to kickstart an epic love story, but you likely only have to look around your desk to find colleagues writing silent lessons on chemistry.
This brings us to Babygirl, which is not nearly a film about romance, but instead a retelling of what it can mean when you let your hands linger on things you cannot have. In this, we have Nicole Kidman playing the ultimate girlboss Romy, not just a powerhouse at work, but a CEO who holds all the authority to build and crush careers with a glance. Leading with poise and marching on from one thing to the next, she’s a woman who has it all: power, fame, and a loving family. Still, she’s hardly satisfied. In walks the brazen new intern, Samuel, played by the roguish Harris Dickinson, sashaying around taming dogs and colleagues with enough confidence to turn every head.
The rest of the story writes itself, with the two getting entangled beyond measure. The CEO who leads with authority wants nothing more than to be led, and the intern senses his position strengthened with each encounter. From grimy motels to 5-star hotels, the sense of power shifts positions until the CEO is no longer the one who is in charge. You might be inclined to believe that this is the way she’d prefer it, but once the real-world consequences of her decisions start to show up, the bliss fades to black.
A Workplace Romance Has Many Drawbacks, Some Overt and Most Temporarily Covert
It would be cynical to pretend that all workplace relationships are doomed to fail. Many relationships make it out of the corner office, with marriages announced to no one’s surprise. And yet, there is a general sense of discretion that is expected to be maintained, and this is not solely due to a desire for privacy. Workplaces demand some degree of professionalism, much of which can be stuffy and unnecessary day-to-day. Colleagues become confidants over time, and most of us drop our guards around workplace friends who deign to earn our trust. Many organizations also have a policy that accommodates relationships at work, as long as they are disclosed and the two aren’t intrinsically tied to each other in their daily operations.
Matters become more complex when one of the partners holds a position of power. It is impossible to deny that Kidman had all the balls in her court at the start of the movie, but Dickinson eventually gained the upper hand, putting her career and family on the line. Leadership positions guarantee those in power some authority, but in this particular scenario, she’s the one who loses the upper hand. From the perspective of an HR review of Babygirl, we have to admit that most workers who find themselves dating their bosses will not find themselves so easily able to turn things around.
Workplace power dynamics blur the lines on how much of the relationship is consensual and how much a worker feels compelled to give in, in order to secure their place at work. In most cases, a worker’s performance can elicit greater security, with those questioning how much of their success is earned. This shadow on your career is another one of the drawbacks of a workplace romance, and it can follow you longer than you’d like.
Women In Positions of Power Often Have Far More to Lose
Most movie critiques of Babygirl acknowledge the fact that the reception to this movie would be quite different if their roles were swapped. The decision to put Kidman in a position of authority may have many calling this a feminist fantasy, but there’s hardly any merit to that claim. There’s a moment in the movie where a female employee who is enthralled with the CEO and loyal to her beyond measure chooses to question her relationship with the intern, asking her why she’s no different than men who have previously found themselves in the role. This moment is perhaps the hardest-hitting, despite the other fantasy fulfilment that occurs in this film.
Workplace relationships present a considerable assortment of issues where there is a conflict of interest, but for women, such relationships can be particularly difficult to outmaneuver. While her actions are deserving of the reproach and repercussions she sees, most women in the workplace are expected to serve as examples of what their cohort can achieve with hard work and dedication, holding themselves to higher standards than their colleagues.
The recent viral incident of the Coldplay couple is perhaps more well-known than this movie, and despite the CEO being in a position of power with a family to return home to, the female HR executive, who was free of such ties, has found it impossible to find work in the aftermath of the situation. This is not to say that men do not suffer consequences of workplace romances. The dismissal of the CEO of Nestlé serves as a stark reminder of how a power breach and conflict of interest can rear its horns. But we do return to the idea that, oftentimes, women in the workplace are required to hold themselves to a higher standard as role models for their younger colleagues.
The Negative Effects of a Workplace Romance Are Rarely Worth the Rewards
As exciting as it can be to toe the line of existing workplace power dynamics and flip the switch on who gets to lead from the top, there are other ways to turn these ideas into reality without putting your career at risk. We can admit that there are a lot of things the movie gets right about experimenting in secrecy and testing boundaries that are unnecessarily rigid. If you’re in it for a guilty pleasure watch, then you may walk away satisfied with what it has to offer, but there are indeed far better movies out there that deliver on a promise of steamy stagings.
On the other hand, if there’s one thing you take away from this HR-themed review of Babygirl, it should be that it’s never a good idea to place your career in the hands you don’t fully trust. Hoping a manager or CEO will accurately estimate your capabilities and set you in line for deserving promotions is one thing, but setting them as keepers of your reputation and career can be risky, and not in a way that elicits any satisfaction.
Babygirl ends with a deceptively simple resolution to a rocky, whirlwind relationship, but in reality, you might be forced to sit through more hours of HR-facing activities than you’d like, with your business aired out for the rest of the actual business to see. Play your cards carefully.
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