Sleeping Beauty

Movie Title--  Sleeping Beauty

Release Year--  2011

Running Time--  1 Hour and 41 Minutes

Director--  Julia Leigh

Cast--  Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Eden Falk, Ewen Leslie, Sarah Snook, Robin Goldsworthy

Lucy, a university student, answers an ad in the student paper that leads her to a strange, new job that explores the nature of hidden desires.

Lucy (Emily Browning) is a young university student that has several odd jobs.  She is disliked by her landlord who is constantly hanging the chance of eviction over her head.  She also frequently visits a man referred to a "Birdman" (Ewen Leslie) who obviously has feelings for her but she does not share his affections, although she always seems happiest when she is with him. 

One day, she answers an ad that she finds in the school paper and soon meets Clara (Rachael Blake) who describes the job to her.  Lucy is told that by accepting the job, she will be used whenever she is needed and not to rely on the job as full time work.  She is also told that the work will be for freelance "silver service" (an upscale serving job) that will be done in lingerie and she will make $250 a hour.  Lucy agrees to the job and Clara then tells her that while in her service, Lucy will answer to the name Sarah.

Lucy's first job is to help service an upscale dinner party and after the evening is over, she gets a call from Clara's assistant Thomas (Eden Falk) wanting to set up a meeting with Clara.  She goes to see Clara and is told that she is wanted for a different type of job.  She is to drink a tea that will put her into a deep sleep and men will be paying to be with her, the only rule is there would be no penetration of any kind.

After a few sessions, the effects of not knowing what is happening to her starts to bleed into Lucy's real life and she soon becomes curious as to what is really going on when she is put into the deep sleep.

I am not going to lie, I hated this film.  There was a shining moment at about 30-45 minutes in that it looked like things might improve and that moment fizzled into nothing.  It was as if someone said, "Let's make a film full of pert young breasts and old, naked wrinkled men!" and someone else decided that that would be a great idea.  After the first old man gets undressed and turns to the camera for a full frontal shot, I was completely over the film.

This film has been on my list for a very long time to watch; I had seen somewhere that it was an interesting take on the "Sleeping Beauty" story.  I am  not sure why I put off watching the film for so long but now that I have seen it, I wish I would have continued to put it off.  This film was just a waste of my time.  For the record, I am no prude but after watching this film I feel dirty and disgusted.  This film was nothing but an excuse to showcase sex without actually having any sex in the film.  I think that the worst part about the whole thing is, there is no real story.  The strangeness of the film would maybe be alright if there was a real story to follow along with but with everything else going on, the story gets lost and is never truly found.

Don't see this film.  There is truly other things you can be doing with your valuable time and watching this film, isn't one of them.  I am pretty sure that most people that sit down to see this film will just come out of it disappointed.  Leave this one in bad film hell where it belongs and Don't Forget the Popcorn!