Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Sleeping Beauty (2011)

Director: Julia leigh

Time Out rating

Average user rating

6 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

If you don’t recall the moment in the Disney version of Charles Perrault’s enduring romantic fable in which our heroine nonchalantly wanders into a research laboratory to have her gag reflex tested, that’s because it isn’t there. Jane Campion-approved Australian novelist and screenwriter Julia Leigh makes a very natural transition into the director’s chair with this languid, inquisitive and visually meticulous debut feature about erotic desire, voyeurism, the ravages of age and the commodification of flesh.

It’s a film of ideas, reminiscent of Luis Buñuel’s ‘Belle de Jour’ (1967), which itself charted a woman’s sexual odyssey with a sense of hard intellectual inquiry. Both are unabashed works of feminism in which female sublimation is employed to reflect the ugly traits of male sexual longing, and Leigh’s film is also suffused with a biting strain of ironic humour.

The motif of a coquettish girl locked in a deep sleep remains, but it’s implemented to mine more contemporary concerns. Lucy (Emily Browning) is a strangely nihilistic student who has no qualms about selling her body for cash. She’s not a woman of extravagant tastes, and aside from a few minor outgoings (the rent for her student housing), there is the suggestion that she’s fallen in to this line of work for the simple, cheap thrill of it. Her only friend is a greasy druggie, in whose presence she comes out of her shell as they enjoy muesli splashed in vodka.

There are three tiers to her erotic escapades. Initially she prowls for easy sex in bars, then works as a scantily clad hostess at an eerie supper club and finally she’s voluntarily drugged into a coma-like slumber and clients are allowed to fondle and perv to their heart’s content. But, per one of the film’s best running gags, there’s strictly no penetration.

Though it takes almost half the film to arrive there, the third segment is where it is at its most audacious and suggestive. Even at her most vulnerable, Lucy retains a curious upper hand in the power relationship with various elderly Johns. Their ailments and physical deficiencies appear all the more wretched when confronted with the milky-white pallor of Lucy’s skin, and Leigh appears to use these powerful scenes to make a point about the tragedy of a waning libido and the cruel exasperation of having access to someone’s body, but not their mind.

There are some immaculately dry exchanges, especially one in which Lucy is given the rules of being a hostess. When Leigh lets her literary instincts take over, such as a flowery monologue by one of the old men, the film is at its weakest. Browning, who suffered the early career indignity of starring in Zac Snyder’s repellent ‘Sucker Punch’, proves that she’s a fearless and distinctive young actress whose rigorously passive performance imbues her character with immense depth and mystery. She gives her body over to Leigh with the same reckless abandon that her character does in this singular film.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 2147: 13 – 19 October 2011

Email Tweet Share

User reviews of this film

Frannie said...

Posted on Mar 08 2012 00:21 It is not a 4 starts film. It is intriguing and well shot but it lacks in plot and meaning.

Report as inappropriate
Nick Simpson said...

Posted on Oct 19 2011 17:39 Agree, normally trust Mr Jenkins' reviews, but this film is a shocker - horribly trite dialogue, no plot or character development, it's just a horrible, soulless, try-hard load of pap, even if it is inspired by Bunuel/ Naneke or whoever. Emily Browning is intriguing in it, but the script is awful - wherever the 'biting strain of ironic humour' is, I missed it. Yuck.

Report as inappropriate
Phil Ince said...

Posted on Oct 16 2011 18:06 Not as perverse as the cold trailer led me to expect but more obscure in places.
There's compassion for the three men we see using the escorts, even the frightened beast who burns a sleeping girl to ensure she's unconscious. He tries to arouse himself with threats and insults towards her but expectant downward looks at his crotch seem not to show him the response he desires in himself. The beautiful, poised matron we might expect to be a threat to the girl confirms her previous sincerity when she reveals her own humanity towards the end.
" ... female sublimation is employed to reflect the ugly traits of male sexual longing" - Isn't there something more than that to it? There was a woman at the dinner party table. I wish the writer had let us see her treatment of the sleeper.
Very unusual (to me) and powerful film. Also, boldly quiet.

Report as inappropriate
Mike said...

Posted on Oct 14 2011 08:48 Having trusted David Jenkins reviews in the past ("Headless Woman" - 5 stars - audience reviews thought otherwise, etc, etc), it's probably worth taking on board the Telegraph's given this film 1 star, and the Guardian 3 stars. 4 stars should put it in the league of multi-Oscar winning movies, like King's Speech. Just saying.

Report as inappropriate
s ford said...

Posted on Oct 13 2011 19:26 there's a parent and baby screening of this at hmvcurzon. it seems like quite possibly a unsuitable choice of film for parent and baby screening.

Report as inappropriate
IMHO you've got the right said...

Posted on Jun 01 2011 05:59 IMHO you've got the right asewnr!

Report as inappropriate