Variety
The film's frustratingly elliptical style and lack of character insight give it a distinctly first-draft feel.
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Sleeping Beauty (2011)
With the billing "Jane Campion Presents...", this Australian drama from Julia Leigh - a protege of Campion - is described as an "unsettling erotic fable". Nominated for Palme d'Or at Cannes 2011. Stars Sucker Punch's Emily Browning.
"It’s a startlingly poised, modern-day fairy tale, a strange marriage of Jane Campion and Lars Von Trier that titillates, terrifies and haunts in equal measure. Browning plays Lucy, a university student who takes up a job as a ‘Sleeping Beauty’. The work is very simple: she is driven to a rural mansion, sedated, stripped, and then given over to rich clients who can do (almost) anything they wish with her…. But Lucy is a strange fish; she has a dynamic passivity that leads her to sleep with overweight strangers on the toss of a coin. Her decision to risk her life with strangers seems to be driven as much by curiosity and philosophical stance as it is by money." (Source: NZ International Film Festival 2011)
Less2011Rating: MA15+102 minsAustralia
Drama
- Director:
- Julia Leigh (feature debut)
- Writer:
- Julia Leigh
- Cast:
- Emily BrowningRachael BlakeEwen Leslie
Sleeping Beauty (2011) | Reviews
The Guardian
Sleeping Beauty is an impressive technical display, though no more than the sum of its parts.
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Salon
I found it gorgeous, opaque and disturbing in roughly equal portions, but it was a riveting experience all the way through.
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SBS
One can't help but wish for the film Sleeping Beauty might have been had Campion held the reins.
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Empire Magazine
This will divide audiences as much as The Tree Of Life, but it's a brave and beautiful calling card for both filmmaker and star.
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Little White Lies
An airless, lifeless experience despite the best efforts and intentions of its lead.
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A.V. Club
Leigh’s basic premise is so strong that it largely survives her efforts to turn Sleeping Beauty into a heavy-handed thinkpiece.
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The New York Times
Leigh observes Lucy's body and what happens to it with a dreamy detachment that is seductive and unnerving in equal measure.
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New York Post
I'm not, finally, sure what Leigh is saying - but she is a filmmaker with a voice.
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New York Daily News
Though Julia Leigh's surprisingly dull debut is meant to present the mysteries of a troubled young woman, you're more likely to wonder why its star, Emily Browning, is drawn to such demeaning roles.
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Paste
Leigh strikes an observational, artful tone that builds to an emotional climax as fittingly yet frustratingly enigmatic as anything that's come before.
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Sleeping Beauty (2011) | Release Details
Sleeping Beauty (2011) is available to stream in Australia now on Netflix and Google Play and Foxtel and Binge and SBS On Demand and Beamafilm and Prime Video Store.