Puppet The main character, resembling an autistic woman, is troubled by the search and understanding of herself through the pleasures of this world, especially not gravitating to either sex, drugs, or other joys of life. Cold, almost lifeless, but amazingly beautiful, she, like a porcelain doll, finds her real vocation almost in the form of an exhibit in the “erotic museum”, providing very strange services in a very strange semi-brothel. Pumped with sleeping pills, she sleeps naked in a luxurious bed, while customers can do anything with her, with a couple of significant restrictions: no penetration and no marks on her body.
Visual play with a live doll in all forms tries to glorify aesthetic beauty, never breaking into pornography and sex scenes. Any intimacy is interrupted in the middle of a word, each act is swept somewhere behind the scenes, and only reclining, or smoothly walking in the frame naked Browning hints that something was likely. Maybe not. Behind the scenes are essentially all the visits of customers, from which we occasionally show only prologue and foreplay, before extinguishing the light in the frame, changing the perspective and time frame of the scene. Raw and boring editing, the almost complete absence of close-ups and fixation of the frame on the naked charms of the heroine or other undressing girls, try their best to make the film detached, cool and insensitive in the time of Lucy herself - the main character of the plot.
But to hide behind the insensibility of the real fireworks of intense action completely does not work, and smoothly placed accents (like those intimate zones on the curves of the charming body of the heroine) as the plot shoots a range of feelings, from tears to hysterics, from drama to delight. Well, the doll remains in between bursts only to pose, but to look after the groom, in the hope that from her fettered half-sleep she will wake up some Prince Charming. The debutante Julia Lee throws this Sleeping Beauty into the harsh world of reality, despite all the seemingly originality of the plot moves and interesting ideas, demonstrating the prince died, the indifference of the human species knows no limit, and the hope for happiness is only an illusory core that helps not only to get up and wake up, but also to fall asleep, knowing absolutely nothing.
Perhaps a more or less settled routine of actions and fixation of what is happening is already some kind of ray of light that helps to find harmony, find a calling and at least temporarily feel necessary, necessary and significant. It is not for nothing that career growth from, say, topless waitress, brings even to the room of Sleeping Beauty, but the reward for doing nothing is the opportunity to receive education and pay for studies, and possibly savings for any personal purposes. It hurts little about Lucy we were told, leaving many secrets and riddles, which, however, any girl is very necessary, and in the context of the story told, all this is not so significant.
To blame for the monotony or slowness of the film is simply impossible, because it is brilliantly beautiful and flawlessly erotic. With such savour and density, the plasticity of an intimate visual, Atom Egoyan shoots today, sometimes also leaving a lot of action behind the scenes, focusing on aesthetics, but not so meticulously as Julia Lee, who forever breaks off on the most interesting. Oh, those female directors... The whole film is essentially as charming and dollish as Lucy herself, or as Browning herself, who played her. Here, at least, still reached what the creators of the horror film “Uninvited” did not have the courage to do, what was the guts of the incompetent Zach Snyder, and what almost came to “Lemon Snicket”. Browning was divided in all its glory, in a variety of angles, and from all sides. Her grandiose performance and best role for the current career and want to compare with Gemma Arterton from “The Disappearance of Alice Creed”, finding something in common not only between the actresses themselves, but also films, although this is certainly a completely different movie.
The film seems to be trying to sing a hymn to women’s natural beauty, not for nothing removing “dirty sex” and “prostitution” beyond the screen action, leaving only subtle hints of “cruel reality”. Everything is full of some conventions, direct metaphors and easy hints, so, so, so suitable from all sides to the story told. However, one could go further, making, for example, the main character a high school virgin (remember the plot of “Angel” after all), somehow justifying this ridiculous ban on penetration, singing at the same time the hymn of youth and innocence. Or to give it all under the wing of Lars Von Trier, acting out the drama harder, and erotic elevated to demonstrative art-house porn. However, he still his “Nymphomaniac” will show everyone how to shoot about naked girls, and Julia Lee does not claim a cult status and a sea of awards, but charmingly makes a directorial debut with a delightful picture that can later become one of the best in filmography, although it will still remain not perfect, not revealed to the end.
Without receiving any answers, and without looking at where the heroine of the film so sought, you should not be particularly upset. In the end, there are no confusing storylines, the finale hardly requires additional explanations, and the fate of the characters, albeit not revealed in all the details and characters, is very succinctly and clearly laid from the beginning to the final credits. Sleeping Beauty is a smooth, graceful and insanely beautiful movie, with an interesting dramatic story, slowly moving through the amazing beauty of erotic forms that arise in the frame. A magnificent picture, not devoid of shortcomings and absurdity, turned out to be very pleasant, worthy of repeated viewing, and may well get on the shelf of honor in a personal collection. A delightful Browning, a delightful directorial debut by Julia Lee, a delightful Sleeping Beauty.
9 out of 10
Original