Sleeping Beauty is a film by Julia
Leigh which follows Lucy, a student who struggles to afford her rent,
has a strong relationship of sorts with a suicidal alcoholic and
undertakes in prostitution. One may think at first that Lucy is
struggling, however it becomes clear that Lucy thrives on her self
destructive behavior and her situation seems to be largely a result
of her own doing.
Lucy answers an advertisement for work
that ultimately sees her working as a 'sleeping beauty', whereby she
is drugged and left in a room asleep which is then rented out to
(older) men who can do as they please, except have sex. Oddly Lucy
never shows interest in being involved for the money, rather her
motives are entirely unclear and this is one of the many areas
whereby Sleeping Beauty stumbles. In spite of how strong Emily
Browning's performance is as Lucy, their is a lack of any depth to
the character as motivations are never explored and Lucy is devoid of
any personality beyond being self destructive. Likewise the supposed
theme 'present' regarding the desires of men is never explored,
rather the film fells comfortable with simply pointing out that men
can have some questionable 'desires' and never takes it any further
which makes for what is and insufferably uninteresting film and one
that tries to rely on shock value for the sake of being shocking.
Sleeping Beauty however is
meticulously shoot and is generally gorgeous to look at, however
the editing is often heavy handed and features far to many
unnecessary scenes that ultimately lead no where (much like the
film). Initially I thought this may be an analogy for youth, but as
the film continued this become continuously less likely. Ultimately
Sleeping Beauty is without direction or purpose, this is unfortunate
as had their been a more focused narrative, more depth to the
characters present and and actual exploration of the ideas and themes
present, we could have had a truly unique and interesting film. Sadly
as it is Sleeping Beauty is a film that whilst undeniably unique is
devoid of anything of interest or anything I could describe as
entertaining.
My recommendation, stay far away.
No comments:
Post a Comment