Review of Sleeping Beauty (2011) by Mark S — 25 Jun 2011

If you watch and support one Australian film this year, it should be Sleeping Beauty!

My God. Just for once I'd like to see critics and wannabes actually encourage Australians to watch a movie like this one. These days, if a movie doesn't completely spell everything out for an audience, it's deemed as pretentious, lacking depth and needing more character development. Try thinking about it or maybe even try watching a movie you don't understand - wait for it - A SECOND TIME!

Cited as an erotc film, Sleeping Beauty is really a story of self-serving, emotionally damaged people and the extremes they must go to in order to feel something.

The central character of Lucy is clearly mired by her past and finds little to no joy in the things that would make most of us happy. We witness and cringe at many of the choices she makes and this is the intention of the film.

This film is not hard to follow. I discovered very early on that it was necessary to pay attention to the small details. Once you understand that Sleeping Beauty is an exploration of the behaviour of those who are emotionally "dead", the final and best scene of the film will leave you thinking about this film for some time.