SLEEPING BEAUTY (Julia Leigh, 2011)
Equal pieces haunting, detached, and utterly surprising- Julia Leigh's film debut manages to balance art with psychology, forcing us to probe within our inner selves our darkest fantasies and lingering repressed emotions. Emily Browning is a revelation. Since her debut in A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS opposite Jim Carrey and in her dramatic turn in THE UNINVITED, Browning has shown astounding potential. But not since here in SLEEPING BEAUTY has she proved how far she's willing to go as an actress. With her completely naked about half the running time in this movie, being subjected to voyeurism and many other twisted desires, Browning proves her caliber as an actress by showing how confident she is about her body, and equating that with her inspired performance as a liberated young woman who is so detached from anything, or anyone. In fact, I have never seen a perfectly drawn character more detached than Browning's Lucy in recent memory. The film, written and dir...