Like a sheep in wolf’s clothing, Halina Reijn’s surprisingly genteel “Babygirl” might bare the occasional fang, but it doesn’t have much bite. For all the superficial similarities to “50 Shades of Grey” — here too setting a lightly sadomasochistic relationship within a world of affluence, all while tacking on a much dreaded age-gap imbalance to send social media’s most ardent moralists into a tizzy — this dom-com plays more like an outré spin on “Working Girl,” updating Reagan-era wishcasting for the social set that has decided Kamala Is Brat.
Premiering at this year’s Venice Film Festival and set for release this December, “Babygirl” could easily emerge as a holiday season guilty pleasure, a sexy-but-never-dangerous star romp that streamlines kink for maximum commercial play.