BEFORE: If I remember correctly, this is another film that got less-than-stellar reviews - but I don't exactly know why. Still, I've heard a lot about it, particularly while at comic-cons, and it is from the same director as "300" and "Watchmen", the only film so far to score a 10 on my personal rating scale.
And it shares an actor with "Tron: Legacy", a man named Ron Selmour. Enjoy your moment in the spotlight, Mr. Selmour.
THE PLOT: A young girl is institutionalized by her abusive stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the mental facility.
AFTER: I can see how a lot of people might have found this film challenging. As near as I can piece together, it's about a young woman who gets committed to a mental institution, possibly during the 1950's, and to deal with the horrors of her situation, she retreats into a fantasy world where she and the other girls are nightclub dancers and/or prostitutes, yet still in some form of institution. (Did you often find dance-halls adjacent to asylums, back in the 1950's?) And when things go south in THAT reality, she retreats into another reality that resembles a war zone, and she and the other grrls (sic) battle zombie soldiers, robot terrorists and uhh-uhh, that would be telling.
In an "Inception"-like manner, there's a dream within a dream. Perhaps the best comparison is to "Brazil", when Sam Lowry imagined a fantasy battle-world in order to deal with the atrocities and bureaucracies he encountered while working for the government. But's it's also like "Halo" inside "Cabaret/Caged Heat" inside "Girl, Interrupted". Furthermore, like "Tron: Legacy" it adheres to the "Wizard of Oz" pattern, since the people in the real world are also represented by their similar-looking counterparts in the fantasy world.
I'm torn, because there's stuff here that's wildly inventive - more original ideas than you might see in three regular movies. And if you want to have a nerd-gasm (or any other kind of -gasm) watching girls in skimpy outfits dance or blow stuff up real good, then more power to you. But it's mostly surface-level stuff, there's no character development, or any real soul. Though I guess watching an action movie looking for high drama might be a little like watching a porn movie for the great dialogue.
NITPICK POINT: I wish the main character, Babydoll, were capable of having more than one dopey/mopey expression, but it just wasn't in the cards. Not sure if that's an actress problem or a director problem. But she seemed lobotomized from the very start.
NITPICK POINT #2: Babydoll's dancing, in reality level 2, is supposed to be incredibly mesmerizing. BUT, we the audience never get to see it, because that's when we enter reality level 3. How do I know for sure she can dance? Any way you look at this, it's a cop-out. Show, don't tell.
Starring Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish (last heard in "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole"), Jena Malone (last seen in "The Messenger"), Vanessa Hudgens, Carla Gugino (last seen in "American Gangster"), Oscar Isaac, Scott Glenn (last seen in "The Bourne Ultimatum"), with a cameo from Jon Hamm (last heard in "Shrek Forever After")
RATING: 5 out of 10 samurai swords
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