Sleeping Beauty focuses the story on a university student, Lucy, played by Emily Browning, and her search for money led her to the seedy world of taboo and unspoken sexual fantasies. Definitely not a remake of the classical story most famously told by Disney in their 1959 film.
THE ACTORS
Emily Browning is absolutely superb and if it wasn’t for her poor choice in movies, would definitely be a talent to look out for. Browning is just perfect as Lucy, who at times is sociopathic and whimsical in her thoughts and actions, the closest comparison i can find is that of Cassie in the English version of Skins, where everything is very simple and clinical, until something goes wrong, or something happens to someone she cares about. Browning nails this role and is by far her best role in her career, so far. I definitely hope to see Browning in more films.
Everyone else is great but are all background characters just aiding story progression.
THE DIRECTOR
This is the debut film of Julia Leigh, who also wrote the movie. The colour tones used, especially on Browning make the film sometimes seem 3D, it is like a forced perspective and works well with the film and definitely adds to the surrealism of the film. Besides that there is nothing noteworthy here.
CONCLUSION
Sleeping Beauty first piqued my interest when i heard the story of the film. I thought it sounded fairly original and could be a great film in the right hands. Unfortunately, this film is a horrible, unorganised, contrived mess which is truly a shame. There is no plot or no story to tell, Lucy just jumps from location to location with little to no explanation or reason she is there. Some of the dialogue is fascinating, yet most of it falls flat if it is there at all. A lot of things happen in this movie, but we are not given enough information to process these occurrences, so the audience doesn’t know how to feel about what is happening on screen. The saving grace of this film is Browning’s performance, she is absolutely superb and a real treat to watch in this role.
Give it a miss, unless you want proof Browning can act, or you just want to see her naked.
MY SCORE
5.5/10