By Marie Straub
In many respects, his latest offering echoes what he’s done before – there’s a strong comic book feel for instance – but in many more, it’s very different. While sticking with an over-riding aesthetic, Snyder has a veritable filmmaker’s party, genre-hopping with abandon. It’s one of my favourite things about the film, but it also raises my biggest question about it – does the plot measure up to the visual party? I’m afraid I’d have to argue that, at least in one respect, it lags ever so slightly behind.
The opening sequence pretty much had me salivating. Set to a rather trippy version of
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), Snyder covers a lot of exposition in just a couple of minutes in what is almost a mini-music-video within a film. It’s slick, it’s compelling, it sucks you in and it’s my favourite opening sequence in ages. A mother dies, leaving all her possessions to her two darling daughters. An evil step-father, left to have his way with the girls (yes that’s what I mean), is less than happy with this arrangement. It’s the stuff of myth or fairytale, or a bit of both. But when the oldest sister (whom we will come to know as Baby Doll, played by Emily Browning) rises up against her step-father, she accidentally kills her younger sister (thanks to a ricocheted bullet), and is dragged off to Lennox House for the mentally insane where he plans to have her committed. She’s 20 when they check her in and her father makes a deal with the rather unsavoury orderly, Blu Jones (Oscar Isaac), who welcomes them to “what we call the theatre” – billed as a place the girls use “to be social”, it also features a stage which Dr Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino) uses to “treat them” – they act out their therapy on a stage (the concept of the stage as a place to act out personal trauma will ring bells with any film addict, but I’m going to avoid a discussion of catharsis for now). Blu promises the evil step-father that the girl will not even know her name when she’s done (note, we’ll never know it, she will only ever be Baby Doll).
It is here where we will fast find ourselves entering the realm of fantasy. With a cover of The Pixie’s
Where is My Mind so good that it lifted me out of my seat a little (it’s by South African artist, Yoav), suddenly the asylum is a bar (of ill repute) for fetish shows and the step-father is a dodgy priest dropping off Baby Doll as an orphan for the high rollers – it’s a fantasy in which she happily spits on him, Blu is a pimp rather than an orderly and her lobotomy in five days has become an appointment with the ‘high roller’. She cries her way through the first night, but then she starts making friends. She rescues Rocket (Jena Malone) from the advances of the rather huge and definitely not well-intentioned cook. When the therapist-now-dance-instructor Gorski demands that Baby Doll learn to dance (it’s what the customers come for, after all) she escapes to an alternate reality and we go with her (if this is sounding a little ‘dream within a dream’
Inception-like, that’d be about right, just with more fantastical dreams).
The first of these alternate realities sees her arrive outside an Asian temple, in the snow, I might add, wearing what resembles a Catholic school girl’s uniform that has been seriously shrunk in the wash – she’s all thigh-high socks and midriff on show. Inside, a guru asks her what she wants and when she settles on ‘freedom’, he supplies her with her weapons – a Samurai sword (a must, see
Kill Bill) and guns for good measure. He also provides her with a quest of sorts – she needs a map, fire, a knife, a key and a fifth thing which must remain a mystery but which is “the reason” and “the goal”. I know, but quests need a little cryptic something thrown in somewhere. Under-dressed girl – check. Weapons – check. Three larger-than-life Samurai warriors ready to slay her? Well they’re about to arrive, which is why her guru says “One more thing – defend yourself”. Of course she does, in spectacular fashion.
When she comes back from fantasy land, everyone is gasping over how spectacular her dancing was – she was literally mesmerising. It’s even threatening the usual queen bee amongst the girls, Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), who is also Rocket’s sister. Soon, Baby Doll has a plan – she’ll dance to distract the relevant subject, and the other girls will pick pockets to get the items they need. The other girls include Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung), and they are all suitably under-dressed. Whether it’s a map from Blu’s office, a lighter from ‘the mayor’, or a knife from the cook – one by one, Baby Doll entrances the men with her dancing while her girls help her pilfer what’s required. Of course we’ll never see her dance – we’ll see the alternate reality she goes to when she’s dancing. Whether it’s a futuristic version of WWII, complete with evil Germans who have learned how to steam-power the dead so that they can still use them as soldiers (yes, that’s kind of like steam-powered Nazi zombies), or dragon-slaying in a castle that felt Middle Earth-ish (on steroids), or dismantling a bomb on a train headed for a city (we’ve seen this in too many films to reference really), what you are guaranteed is plenty of action for our scantily clad ladies. It will be tough and there will be casualties along the way, but the guru will always be there to advise the girls ahead of every imaginary quest, ready to offer his customary (and cheesy) “one more thing” along with generic wisdom like “Remember, don’t ever write a cheque with your mouth that you can’t cash with your ass”.
Snyder deserves credit where it is due. The casting is pretty much spot on, and Cornish (who first turned my head in
Bright Star) is fast becoming one of the most exciting young prospects out there. The aesthetic is also, as we have come to expect from Snyder, top-notch and the soundtrack is on my must-buy list. There’s also something to be said about a film in which a virgin girl who has an unwanted date with a high roller (and who is given no name) parades around fighting in minimal clothing, all for the pleasure of men (both inside and outside of the film), but that all her efforts to do so are to escape an asylum a corrupt man put her in, in the first place. That Snyder is making some social statements is clear, and they’re amongst my favourite things about this film.
For me, there was really only one negative – once the quest is identified, the narrative becomes incredibly monotonous. Dance, go to imaginary place for battle, obtain item, return and then do it all over again. I have no doubt that the monotony is, like much of the rest of this film, a comment on the filmmaking industry as a whole (and those who consume it), with a few specific jabs at geek culture for good measure, but the monotony did detract from enjoyment of all the rest Snyder’s film had to offer. A melting pot of genres that feels theatrical at times, like a comic book at others, is always fantastical and may erupt into war drama (and more), you’ll struggle to find more of a roller coaster ride at the cinema – which is great, but the last thing you want a roller coaster to be is predictable.
That’s probably Snyder’s point, driven home by Sweet Pea who asks near the film’s conclusion: “Who teaches us what is real and how to laugh at lies?” It’s an interesting point to make, I just wish Snyder had found a less monotonous way to make it. Also, amidst his indulgence in everything from war to short skirts, one does have to at least ask to what extent he is commenting on contemporary culture and to what extent wallowing in the deliciousness of it. You could argue it either way, but I’d suggest you ask any guy who leaves the cinema how much they’re still dying to actually see Baby Doll dance (which they never do) – my guess is that’s where you’ll find your answer. Snyder’s sucker punch lies somewhere between how much he entertained you while simultaneously denying you the entertainment you were itching for.
Visually stunning, I’m coming in at three-and-a-half stars (four for the real geeks).