Sleeping Beauty
It's best to let this Sleeping Beauty lie.
Julia Leigh (Australia, Special Presentation)
SCREENINGS:
Wednesday, September 14, 9:30 p.m.
TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 (350 King Street West)
Sunday, September 18, 4 p.m.
TIFF Bell Lightbox 3 (350 King Street West)
There are many mysteries in the world. Topping this list might be how earlier this year Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty managed to be considered for competition at Cannes. Lauded as controversial, questioning female sexuality, and featuring a very naked Emily Browning the only true statement of these is the latter. Sleeping Beauty is merely a heavy handed and lazy piece of film making, with purposefully obtuse holes in the script and a generic “art house” film style.
Lucy (Emily Browning) is a college student in need of cash. She quickly moves from partaking in paid medical experiments and casual hooking to serving at private Eyes Wide Shut–type parties and finally becoming a “sleeping beauty”: willingly drugged by her Madame Clara (Rachael Blake) she is left unconscious for her paying customers to do as they will with her. The only stipulation: no visible marks and no penetrative sex.
Leigh brings nothing new to either the Sleeping Beauty fable or to filmmaking. Her use of steady, long takes feels contrived rather than refreshing and the film isn’t really controversial in its content. While the sex scenes are uncomfortable, the film never pushes any boundaries that would cause the audience to question its own implication in watching (and perhaps taking enjoyment in) Browning’s subjugation. While Browning proves in scene after scene that she is more than a Zack Snyder pin-up, unfortunately here, her skills weren’t put to good use.