Halina Reijn's adultery drama is reminiscent of films like Unfaithful and 9½ Weeks, but with a businesslike kinky atmosphere that is at the same time topical and humane.

By Owen Gleiberman

One of the many reasons sex scenes in movies have disappeared as a phenomenon is the ubiquity of pornography. When people can just click on their deepest kinks and favorite objects of desire, who needs the carefully staged R-rated “erotic” version?

As if to acknowledge this, “Babygirl,” a drama about a dangerous office romance written and directed by Halina Reijn (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”), opens with a close-up of Nicole Kidman riding an unseen man and gasping in pleasure. It looks and sounds like the kind of movie sex scene that would once have been described as “hot.” But once the coupling is over and the man — Antonio Banderas, as Kidman’s husband — says “I love you,” we see Kidman escape to another room (easy to do in their gigantic Manhattan apartment), where she lies breathlessly on the floor in front of her laptop and masturbates to a filthy piece of incest porn.