Emily Browning gives an astonishing performance in Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty.
But what of the film around her?
Director Julia Leigh knows this, too.
She keeps, as she often does in the film, the rest of the scene exceptionally quiet.
She doesnt even show the door itself.
But just one noise, in an expanse of silence, has real impact.
Leigh approaches much ofSleeping Beautyin the same way.
Its hard to think of a recent feature where music has been so sparse, for instance.
Its a staggeringly confident piece of direction, with Leigh utterly in control of her material.
Just what that material actually is, however, is perhaps the real question here.
At heart, this is a take on the more traditionalSleeping Beautystory, sometimes subtle, sometimes less so.
Leighs film centres on university student Lucy, played by Emily Browning.
Lucys got a couple of pretty uninteresting jobs, in pretty uninteresting places.
Yet it also shields some necessary emotions.
Well come to those shortly.
Described in some quarters as an erotic thriller,Sleeping Beautyis anything but.
Because if theres a problem here, its that its not utterly clear what the point is.
Thats not to say her character is content: far from it, as you might expect.
But the ending doesnt seem to match the sureness of the rest of the film.
Its very much in the same style, it just doesnt quite seem to fit.
Rachael Blakes is the one, you suspect, that will garner few plaudits, and perhaps thats fair.
What then lifts it is Emily Browning, with a staggeringly brave, controlled performance.
Rating:
3 out of 5
