Dutch actress-turned-director Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl” is an icy, clinical inversion of our idea of masochism and “abuse of power” in the workplace. The director of “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies” sets up Nicole Kidman as a “woman on top” at the office, but a born bottom when it comes to getting herself off.

If nothing else, the picture scores with this bit of on-the-nose casting. Kidman’s always been at home in ice queen roles, and her character’s calculating approach to kinky plays as right-on-brand.

The movie around Kidman and her character Romy is much more of a mixed bag, dark, cynical and only amusing in unintentional ways. We can believe our public face of an AI-driven automated shipping company might need to dominate her workplace, but risk it all to be “dominated” after hours. But by an intern-bro? THIS intern bro?

Romy is CEO, in charge and on top at Tensile, her Amazon-on-steroids home delivery corporation. She has people she is accountable to, but this workaholic is the genius who makes it all go.

She is one of Manhattan’s Masters of the Universe, a shaker and mover married to an accomplished stage director (Antonio Banderas, terrific), the mother of teen and tweenage girls.

But whatever show she puts on with her handsome husband in the bedroom, sneaking off to watch online porn and masturbate to it hints that she craves something more.

That new intern (Harris Dickinson) may be young. Impertinent, suggestive and flirtatious, he instantly reads something in Romy that he acts upon.

“I think you like to be told what to do.”

Samuel isn’t a wholly formed adult, and “bro” seems the right read on his intelligence, education and polish. But there are hints of native cunning about him. He imposes himself on her, making her his mentor against her wishes.

Thus begins a twisted, edgy game of brinkmanship. The 20something with the carelessly tied tie has “all the power,” tempting and teasing and bossing around the boss, not the sort of thing HR would approve of.

Wait until he tells her to “Get on your knees.”

The dominance-submission scenes here are brittle and biting, with Kidman’s CEO Romy never wholly “surrendering,” but giving up control to a hunky, impulsive punk who seems years into his own S&M “studies” at 24 or so.

She comes out for drinks with the gang at the office, including ambitious assistant Esme (Sophie Wilde), who lionizes her. A glass of milk mysteriously shows up at her table. Romy spies Samuel from across the room, and drinks it down in one gulp.

The complications pile up in the most melodramatic fashion, as Samuel invents reasons to come to her house. The moment she tries to rein him in, the real trouble starts.

Cliched movie treatments of S&M, “domination,” and kink are nowhere to be found in this most adult of “adult” movies. “Humiliating” Romy can be demanding submission, or simply luring her to a hotel that’s a lot more downmarket than she’s come to expect.

Kidman sells the buy-in, sort of. That old joke about any beautiful person tempted to stray from a beautiful mate comes to mind. “No matter how pretty you are, remember, somewhere there’s a (partner) tired of waking up next to ‘that.'”

But whatever message Reijn is sending about gender equality in the boardroom and the bedroom gets lost in a collection of seriously unsexy couplings and cringey come-ons.

And the finale Reijn slaps on “Babygirl” seems a cop-out afterthought.

Kidman’s nudity here has the calculating quality that often intrudes on her most sexual performances. Where does the acting start and the Oscar winning mistress of Hollywood social climbers/performers end? The “bravery” of taking on such a “naked” part over 50 seems overstated and demanded.

The well-preserved Kidman lets us see the wheels turning, but never lets us forget she’s the one letting us see that.

Rating: R, sex, nudity, profanity

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde, Esther McGregor and Antonio Banderas

Credits: Scripted and directed by Halina Reijn. An A24 release.

Running time: 1:54