Sleeping Beauty (MA)
Directed by Julia Leigh
Lucy (Emily Browning) is an incredibly passive person. Many people in the audience couldn’t control their gag reflexes in the opening scene when Lucy, being a lab guinea pig, has a tube forced down her throat. She puts up with menial jobs to earn money for her university studies and lets the flip of a coin determine a random sexual encounter. The Birdman (Ewen Leslie) seems to be her only friend and they have a very strange plutonic relationship. When Clara (Rachael Blake) offers Lucy a waitressing job, things get curiouser and curiouser. For a large amount of money, she serves at a private dinner party for wealthy elderly men (and one dyke), wearing only lingerie and lipstick the same colour as her labia.
Lucy’s adventures develop all the hallmarks of a very adult fairy tale when Clare offers her a job where she takes a sleeping potion and lies naked in a bed. This is for the delight of the elderly men who can do anything with her except penetrate or leave marks. When Lucy buys a tiny surveillance camera to find out what happens when she is asleep, she needs more than a trail of berries to survive.
I Love You Phillip MorriS (MA)
Directed by Glenn Requa and John Ficarra
Texas police officer Steve Russell (Jim Carrey) plays the organ at his local church. He has a wife and two children, but also enjoys sex with men. After a car accident, he decides to fully embrace the gay lifestyle and resorts to fraud to finance it. In prison, he falls in love with a sensitive southern gentleman by the name of Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) and becomes obsessed with getting them both out of prison to live the American Dream.
The credits of this film, written and directed by the pair who wrote Bad Santa, say that it is based on actual events. Russell’s antics are somewhat similar to those of conman Frank Abagnale in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, but Carrey is too much of a buffoon to give his character any believability. The main characters are lumbered with phoney accents and phoney dialogue and prison is portrayed as some sort of gay heaven. McGregor is cute but the film’s attempts at comedy sometimes fall flat. I know a lot of comedy is derived from pushing the limits of political correctness, but is it that funny to fake your own death from an AIDS related illness?
The Tree of Life (MA)
Directed by Terrence Malick
The opening quote from Job asks the audience to ponder on the difference between nature and grace. Spiritual music and shots of light shining through clouds hint that this film is going to be more than just about Mr (Brad Pitt) and Mrs (Jessica Chastain) O’Brien who live with their three boys in 1950’s Midwestern America. Stunning images assault the audience as the director goes off on a tangent and ponders the origins of life, before catching up with one of the boys, Jack (played by Sean Penn), in contemporary times. Jack is obviously affected by the death of one of his brothers as he wanders around the soulless glass and steel monoliths of a modern city. The meaning of life, the universe and everything weighs heavily on all the characters. Ultimately, theological quandaries take priority over the storyline.
Although it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, I found this film trying. There is a lot to like, particularly the brilliant imagery, the excellent acting and the strength of the drama. Maybe the film needs more than one viewing to absorb its complexities, but I found it difficult to see past the flaws of its 138 minutes.
Lezly Herbert
***
