Review of Sleeping Beauty (2011) by Stewart S — 01 Jul 2011

The best thing about Sleeping Beauty is the title. Unfortunately the rest is a dislocated, pretentious waste of time. This is a film so self-consciously involved in its own "artistry" that it becomes tiresome quickly. It isn't helped by Julia Leigh's static direction or her staged, stilted dialogue. At times it feels like a theatre piece inexpertly adapted for film.

The story, or should I say idea, concerns Lucy, a rather dysfunctional university student who pays for her education with a variety of jobs. One of which is a high-class business that services older gentleman's pleasures. She is the sleeping beauty plaything, blissfully unaware, until she has a sudden (and disconcertingly abrupt) compulsion to find out what happens to her while she sleeps.

Admittedly, Emily Browning is good as Lucy, conveying aloofness and a damaged blankness that allows her to partake in these seedy proceedings. She has moments where a pout or a suggestive flick of the eyes reveals a hidden anger or sadness. But Lucy is so vague and remote that she is never sympathetic or understandable. It is only in her dissatisfying relationship with an alcoholic where she seems real. But even that is maddeningly inexplicable. There are hints of a much more intriguing character that doesn't rise to the surface. Lucy feels like a wasted opportunity.

There is some nice production design, though the wood veneer world of the high-class call girl seems a little false. Geoffrey Simpson's cinematography is also rather over-exposed, scenes full of intrusive light. There is also very little music, which is a bad decision, as the narrative alone doesnâ(TM)t have the power to drive the film without a complementary score.

There are one or two moments when Leigh manages to get the tone thematically right, and the film exhibits a tender pathos. But these moments are rare. With its unnecessary repetition and maintained clinical aloofness I was longing for this to end long before it did. Keep away, unless you like deliberately opaque, lifeless pretentiousness.