Review of Sleeping Beauty (2011) by Chris B — 03 Dec 2011

Lucy is a very passive, emotionally detached college student. In the beginning of the film we witness her menial jobs and witness the daily repetitions of her life. Her behavior is very nihilistic in this detachment to the point that even her relationships are passive as displayed in her willingness to sleep with a man is decided by the flip of a coin.

One day, Lucy replies to an ad in the student newspaper to be a lingerie waitress at this strange brothel-like environment as a nice mansion. She quickly moves up the ranks and becomes a "sleeping beauty' where she essentially drugged and led to a bed where older men spend the time with her.

The film's cinematography is very sterile and stagnate. It's beautifully designed and composed with minimal editing and music. There is one character in the film that Lucy seems to have some form of emotional connection to but I don't really think he was explored or as important in the film as he needed to be.

To be 100% honest I am not entirely sure what Julia Leigh is trying to say with this film. It's a stark, dispassionate film, that is beautifully composed but I really had a trouble really determining what the point of this film was.

It may just be a portrait of this lost, detached female, or a comment on sexual taboos or the banality of human nature but in the end no matter how artistically photographed it may be, the film seems to really lack much of a meaning.

This being said I would definitely be interested to see Julia Leigh's next feature as there is a lot to like from a technical standpoint.