Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 8:45PM Movie Review: 'Sucker Punch'
| Sucker Punch
Starring Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish
|
We all handle grief and trauma differently. We scream, cry, turn to family, withdraw. It's unique, depending on who you are and what's happened. In the case of Baby Doll in Sucker Punch, she uses a sort of escapism to handle what's going on around her. When she can't deal with where she is or what is happening, she transports herself to a night club that doubles for a brothel, a World War II battle against steam powered soldiers, a Tolkien-esque land with orcs and dragons, or a futuristic train ride with robots guarding a bomb. Yeah, she has issues, but you really can't blame her.
As the story opens, Baby Doll's (Emily Browning) mother is pronounced dead. As she is buried by her Stepfather (Gerard Plunkett), Baby Doll notices a slight smirk on his face. Later, he opens her mother's will, and goes into a drunken rage when he reads that she left her fortune to her two daughters. He locks Baby Doll into her room, and beats her sister to death. When the cops arrive, he blame the murder on Baby Doll, and has the mentally traumatized girl committed immediately, before she can come to her senses and tell her side of the story.
Once there, Stepfather conspires with the orderly Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) to get Baby Doll lobotomized as soon as possible, with the doctor (Jon Hamm) arriving in five days. As the numb girl is whisked around the asylum, we meet Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino) and the rest of the girls: Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vaneesa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung). It's at this point that Baby Doll finds her ability to cope with recent events; suddenly, instead of an insane asylum, we're in a night club, with the girls as the dancers, Gorski as the Madame, the doctor as an expected High Roller, and Blue Jones as the owner.
Yeah, this movie really tries to mess with you. Just go with it, makes things much more enjoyable.
Zack Snyder's expected flare is found all over the film; if you've liked his past work, you'll find the action scenes instantly recognizable. Aside from the first major action sequence, which I felt had a bit too much slow-motion, everything else looks great, and made me wish there was more to go around. But Zack also has a story to tell.
It's here things get a little sketchy. You quickly realize that when Baby Doll dances, she escapes to a world where she can physically fight for her freedom, whereas back in "reality" she's dancing and mesmerizing all those around her. I put reality in quotes because this is in the night club that she's dancing, which I suppose is really the asylum. But in truth, it's really a distraction she does so another girl can go steal one of the four items they need to escape. It's just Baby Doll using an imaginary world to deal with her struggle.
Unfortunatey, it makes things so diluted you're not sure what conversations are about this night club world, or about the real world. And that's even broken up by Baby Doll's battles in fantasy worlds. It creates a bit of a disconnect from the characters; is what she's saying real, or part of the fake world? How much should I care? Thankfully, there's enough that rings true to keep the characters rooted in reality, and we do care for them in time. As long as the burlesque costumes don't bother you. Is it our fault that Baby Doll retreats into a world where the girls wear somewhat revealing clothing? Don't answer that.
But there's the case of Oscar Isaac, playing the role of Blue Jones. At first, it works. He's excellent as the weasely orderly, plotting with the Stepfather to get Baby Doll taken care of so she can't talk. For a price, of course. But as the night club owner, he doesn't quite have the tough guy persona needed to be intimidating to a room full of women. It honestly feels like they should have overpowered him long ago and made their escape.
Sucker Punch works best with it's action sequences, but tends to muddy itself with it's own story. It starts strong, feels a little soft in the middle, but definitely goes out with a bang. My advice? Sit back, enjoy the ride, and don't think about the twists too much. Everything gets nicely wrapped up in the end. Well, at least answered.
Reader Comments (2)
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just saw it today
loved the action sequences
fell in love with Rocket
she was my favorite
when the ending hit
all I could think was Brazil
Snyder has a lot of potential
and someday this will be called "an influential" film
if he keeps making other commercial movies
but I doubt it ever gets above cult classic
on the whole I loved it
but my fave movie of the last few years was Zombieland
so take it with a grain of salt