Sleeping Beauty

I would say that the main element at play in SLEEPING BEAUTY, the Julia Leigh directed, Jane Campion produced quasi-feminist (or at least, woman-promoting) film, is to allow for a contradiction to exist. Many films have such contradictions working for them, and in SLEEPING BEAUTY, that contradiction, or simplistic contrast, is the orderly, occupational sex, gagging, and fondling within a pristine and sterile environment. This is stark, even at the opening, in which Lucy (Emily Browning) enters a medicinal research facility, flattened by evenly distributed light, and allows a long string with a camera to be lowered down her throat. As she gags, we get an obvious foreshadowing for the sex that is to come, but this is mainly to establish the kind of person who Lucy is: taking odd jobs or really, any, job, no matter how degrading, because she fails to value her body. There's an odd subplot that fails to work that comes up and, regardless of its weirdness, establishes Lucy as someone who breaks her life up into a series of duties and decisions. Eventually, Lucy takes a job as a Sleeping Beauty. In the job, she is drugged after drinking a spiked tea, and then is laid naked on a bed for old patrons to fondle her naked body. The one rule is: no penetration, but we see dangers illustrated in every single interaction: one man burning her to test the strength of the drugs, and another turning her over on her face where she almost suffocates. I think that the end of the film is weak and pathetic, pretending that suspense has been built when it really hasn't, and sort of betraying the earlier orderliness that's actually been established. I think the film sets a lot up but then forgets where to go. It's a very interesting film, but not a very good or full one, eventually becoming uneven and undeservedly preachy. Still, I found Browning's performance to be brave, but not in her nude scenes. And I'm already anticipating Leigh's next film.

★★