Sucker Punch

My choice of movie this weekend came down to two: Certified Copy, an art film by a celebrated Iranian director, set in Italy and starring a French actress, which has received glowing reviews, or Sucker Punch, a film by a largely disparaged director, which has gotten terrible reviews. It was a debate between my intellectual self and my prurient self. Guess which self won?

I did not expect much from Sucker Punch. I've seen Zack Snyder's last two films, 300 and Watchmen, and was impressed by neither. But my imp of the perverse drove me to see it, and I think I have finally figured out why. It's not just that it stars five actresses that can be described as "hotties," but that it has all the structure and thematic flourishes of porn. If you take this script and replace the fighting scenes with hardcore sex, nothing would be out of place.

This is Snyder's first original screenplay, but put the "original" in quotes, because Sucker Punch is a stew of various other films, such as Moulin Rouge!, Shutter Island, and Kill Bill, just to name a few, and since those films borrow from yet more films, Sucker Punch is a palimpsest of about a hundred different movies. It also is heavily influenced by Japanese anime and video games, and though Snyder has made millions as a movie director, I humbly suggest he hang that up and simply design video games, which would be better for all of us.

I didn't despise Sucker Punch; it's far too interesting visually to be dismissed outright, but lordy is it stupid. The plot concerns a young woman (Emily Browning) who has just lost her mother. Her stepfather is a horrible man, and in a brief prologue we see how she has been committed to an institution (Lennox House for the Mentally Insane--is their any other kind of insane besides mental?) Once there we realize she's in for a bad time--the stepfather has made a deal with the head orderly (Oscar Isaac) to have her lobotomized.

The film then pulls an Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz gambit and presents an alternate or dream state, where Browning, called Babydoll, is not in a mental ward but in a fancy bordello. The orderly is the pimp, and the head doctor (Carla Gugino) is a madame. Browning and four fellow courtesans, who also have pornish names (Sweet Pea, Blondie, etc.) decide they are going to escape with the help of some kind of guru, played by Scott Glenn presumably because David Carradine died and couldn't do it.

As I write this I realize how dopey it sounds, and believe me, it is that dopey. Browning and her friends are able to visit Glenn when she dances--ah, fuck it, I'll stop trying to explain. Suffice it to say that Glenn tells her she needs four things, and each of those things are achievable in a video-game style level, defeating a certain type of obstacle in a familiar milieu: Shogun Japan, World War I Steampunk, Tolkien-style fantasy land, etc. You may find yourself reaching for a joystick while watching this film.

Through it all, the girls are dressed in trampy clothes. They are hookers, after all. This is not disagreeable to me, but it is offensive. I'm sure all involved with this film would say that they are presenting a feminist manifesto--women have to fight to free themselves from the shackles of male tyranny, yada yada yada, but in doing so they have made a movie that is catnip for the raincoat crowd. Like I said, this film could be turned into porno without changing a word of the script.

A lot of reviews have commented on Snyder's visual style, with some going so far as to call him an auteur. Well, I suppose Ed Wood was an auteur, too. Having a style doesn't make somebody a genius. Sucker Punch is at times gorgeous--I give the credit to cinematographer Larry Chong. The problem is one of degree. Snyder would seem not to have the words nuance, restraint, or subtlety in his vocabulary. For example, there is a character of a cook who is supposed to be repellent. Instead of giving him a few disgusting traits, we get the works--he's fat, has bad skin, wears a dingy uniform, has piggish features, and eats a greasy sandwich. He might has well have worn a sign that said "Pig" on it. Snyder, in the three films of his that I've seen, talks down to his audience, assuming they won't understand anything unless he spells it out, underlines it, and italicizes it. This goes for his use of music, too. I wrote of this is my review of Watchmen, and he's back at it again here, too, using classic rock songs as if he thought he was doing it for the first time. I was appalled at how he used the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" (not their version, but sung by Allison Mosshart).

I suppose I should comment on the actors, although there really isn't acting here, just striking of attitudes. Abbie Cornish, as Sweet Pea, fares best, as a woman resistant to Browning's escape plan. I couldn't help but feel she was trying to tell us all that she wanted out of the movie. As for Glenn, after a long distinguished career, it's a bit wince-inducing to watch him here, especially when he has to say lines like, "Don't write a check with your mouth that your ass can't cash."

One shudders at the thought of what Snyder will do to Superman.

My grade for Sucker Punch: D