This is one of those movies that baffles the mind. Based on the visual excitement in the previews and track record of director Zack Snyder, I eagerly anticipated his first original enterprise. After seeing it, one hopes he sticks to faithful adaptations of other people's work. It's epic for sure. An epic fail.
The film beats us over the head right from the start. Baby Doll (Emily Browning, LEMONY SNICKET'S) is a 20 year old woman living at home with her mother and stepfather (Gerard Plunkett, EIGHT BELOW). When her mother dies under suspicious circumstances, she fears for her and her young sister's life at the hands of their stepfather, who doesn't inherit the family wealth unless the girls are dead. A series of events transpire that leads the stepfather to have Baby Doll institutionalized and set up for a lobotomy. One has to give it to Snyder to tell his entire first act without dialogue, but it's done like an aggressive music video and robs the viewer of any emotional connection with the characters and their plight.
The asylum is run by the corrupt orderly Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac, ROBIN HOOD). Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino, SIN CITY) runs play acting exercises for the patients in order to help free them from their problems. Baby Doll takes to the therapy very well and delves into rich fantasy worlds to escape from her "prison."
The film presents two layers of fantasy and with each layer the film gets less engaging to the audience. In the first layer, Baby Doll casts herself and her fellow patients as striptease artists. Her dances are so provocative and raw that the men get mesmerized by them. This allows her fellow patients to steal the items they need to escape. So you might be thinking, well let me see these dances, but we never see them. When Baby Doll begins to dance, we enter the second and more pointless layer of fantasy.
If having his beautiful young cast dressed up in lingerie and leather in one fantasy world isn't fetish-like enough, Snyder has them dressed that way and fighting giant metal samurai, zombie WWI soldiers and a dragon in the second layer. Each layer distances us from the reality of what is happening to the characters in the real world. For a good portion of the film there is no sense that anything in the fantasy worlds has any real impact on reality. Thus these extended action sequence drag as Snyder throws every random idea from his Id at the screen.
Trapped in these adventures with Baby Doll is a host of scantily dressed and thinly developed young women. Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish, BRIGHT STAR) is the mother hen of the girls who doesn't like the risky escape plan of the new girl. Rocket (Jena Malone, SAVED!) is Sweet Pea's sister who is a trouble magnet. Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL) isn't blonde. Amber (Jamie Chung, THE HANGOVER PART II) is the sexy Asian. The girl's mentor in the action fantasy sequences is a wise man, played by Scott Glenn (THE RIGHT STUFF), who must be the alternative to David Carradine as the go-to actor to play white guy Asian-like fortune cookie philosophy spiritual masters.
The substance of the story is secondary to the style. This is never more apparent than in cheating the audience of seeing a key plot point. Not seeing Baby Doll’s dances is a sick tease. The big action sequences are fueled by testosterone not character or emotion or logic. In getting a chance to put his own ideas on the screen, Snyder tried to cram every idea he’s ever had into one film. But all these ideas don’t gel or make a compelling singular story. After being punched in the head with this feature length music video, I’m the one that feels like the sucker.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
