Sleeping Beauty

Released Dec 2, 2011

1 hr. 41 min.

Drama

List

48%

98 Reviews

Tomatometer

32%

50,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A college student (Emily Browning) becomes a niche sex worker for a high-end brothel where customers pay to fondle her while she sleeps.

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Critics Consensus

Sleeping Beauty's provocative premise and luminous art design is hampered by a clinical, remote presentation, delivering boredom and shock in equal measure.

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Kelly S

The concept lead me to believe with would be a thrilling story alas disappointment. There is no depth in the characters and their story so each seen is as empty as empty can be. Disapointment is a start but just like this movie I won't delve into why

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

10/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Where do I start….. I just don’t know but I will say that the acting is sub par at best, like everyone is doing it against their will and dosed up on lithium and antipsychotics…. Not to mention the final scene…. A less believable breakdown I’ve not seen ever!

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

07/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie is interesting. It's a lot like the movie "Gummo", in the sense that there isn't a continuous plot, but rather a series of experiences. "Sleeping Beauty" tells the story of a young college student as she progresses further in her career at a high-end brothel. I think what so many people get wrong about it is that it's not supposed to feel like a movie. It feels as though we are watching someone in real life, as opposed to watching the life of someone in a movie. There is hardly any soundtrack; dialogue is shallow and bare, not bursting and bubbling; and hardly anything is explained. What this does is it paints a picture of people that are unattached from the audience. They aren't narrating things for the viewer, nor are they trying to be entertaining for them either. They are simply just like you and me. For example, many people have been confused and angered that the character Birdmann is never explained. But think about it- whenever you see your friends and family, would you have conversations with them so revealing it completely explains your entire dynamic to a stranger? No, you would not. That's why characters in this film are so blasé- they're just like anybody. If you were to work in an extremely private and secretive high end brothel, you wouldn't be walking around with an attitude entertaining for an unknown audience. This is the tone to the entire movie- realism. Things are boring, sure, but that's because what's being told is not for your enjoyment. I agree that it is very anticlimactic, but that's the point. After all, there's no big symphony playing as you argue with your mother. Your life is not a movie so neither is Lucy's. Things are hard to understand because they're not making it easy for you. You are purely just looking in on someone's life. You are the one that has to connect the dots, or just shrug because you not part of the inside joke. That doesn't mean that this movie can't be bad, but I think a lot of the flack it gets is from people who don't understand it. When watching this movie, go into it with an open mind. Don't look for the set up or the context. Instead, just experience it. It will leave you soaked in eery calmness. There's a reason why so many people have seen this movie despite calling it boring or pointless- it's alluring, it's got mystery to it. The acting is amazing, especially Emily Browning's performance. The characters are all rooted in realism. "Sleeping Beauty" truly is a piece of art- meant to be experienced, not enjoyed.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Weird but good. Not really sure what to make of it but I still had to watch it all the way through.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

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Audience Member

This movie reminds me of the Shakespeare Macbeth speech: Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. Emily Browning's presence in this film can't make up for such over the top creepiness in certain parts.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Highly artistic and highly symbolistic. Disjointed and uunexplicable. Tableau scenes fading to black.Who was Birdman and why was he part of her life. Never explained. An arty film lost on the masses because it doesn't tell a story. Bit of a wank really

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/05/23

Full Review

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Julia Leigh

Director

Emily Browning

Lucy

Rachael Blake

Clara

Ewen Leslie

Birdmann

Peter Carroll

Man 1

Chris Haywood

Man 2

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22%

28%

Elles

14%

16%

Cherry

83%

43%

The Client List

88%

64%

Paradise: Hope

67%

60%

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Sophie Mayer

Sight & Sound

Sleeping Beauty aspires to create a... haunted disconnect between Lucy's presentation and her subjectivity. Yet Leigh isn't able to muster a cinematic equivalent of a first-person narration that would convey Lucy's interiority to the viewer.

Jul 9, 2018

Full Review

Nicolas Rapold

Film Comment Magazine

Even if the film's final chapter seems far too on point, if not glib, the filmmaker continues to mine complicated psychological terrain with a clear-eyed stringency.

Jul 1, 2013

Full Review

Laura Kern

Film Comment Magazine

She spends much of the movie baring her fascinatingly underdeveloped body; her vagina is her temple. There's no graphic sex, but its intimations are anything but sexy.

Jun 20, 2013

Full Review

Diego Batlle

Otroscines.com

... Too calculated, precious, and artificial to be captivating. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 5/10

Oct 4, 2022

Full Review

Amie Simon

Three Imaginary Girls

While Beauty is prettily composed and the acting was just fine, the overall effect left me feeling pretty empty.

Mar 4, 2019

Full Review

Steve Erickson

Gay City News

[Director Julia] Leigh shows great confidence as a visual stylist and director of actors.

Mar 3, 2018

Full Review

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Synopsis

A college student (Emily Browning) becomes a niche sex worker for a high-end brothel where customers pay to fondle her while she sleeps.

Director: Julia Leigh
Executive Producer: Jamie Hilton, Timothy White
Screenwriter: Julia Leigh
Distributor: IFC Films
Production Co: September Films
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 2, 2011, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 19, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $34.6K

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