Sucker Punch (2011)

Directed by: Zack Snyder | 110 minutes | action, thriller, fantasy | Actors: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, Oscar Isaac, Scott Glenn, Vicky Lambert, Ron Selmour, Danny Bristol, Malcolm Scott

Zack Snyder is known for films that are praised more for their style than their content. For ‘300’ and ‘Watchmen’ the director was still inspired by strong source material in the form of successful graphic novels, for ‘Sucker Punch’ he jumped in at the deep end and wrote the story himself. This results in a construction that remains intact as long as the film lasts. In retrospect you have to conclude that there is quite a bit wrong with the scenario, but by that time you have already had such a crazy ride that you probably don’t care anymore.

The story of ‘Sucker Punch’ revolves around Baby Doll (Emily Browning), a young woman who is imprisoned by her stepfather in an asylum, where a corrupt male nurse takes care of her. As a survival strategy, Baby Doll retreats into a fantasy world that shows parallels to reality. The asylum is a brothel in the dream world, the nurse is the cruel manager of the establishment and fellow patients become animation ladies who perform dance routines to entertain their clients.

To inspire her dance act, Baby Doll dives even deeper into the dream world. In this second dream layer, she meets a wise man (Scott Glenn), who tells her what items she needs to escape from the brothel. Baby Doll recruits a quartet of ladies to assist her and joins them in fantasy worlds where they must defeat dragons, Nazi zombies and orcs to get the required items (a map, a knife, a lighter, a key) into their pocket. to get possession. That sounds like a concept for a video game, but Zack Snyder knows how to turn it into a movie.

‘Sucker Punch’ is an adolescent escape fantasy that is designed with such flair that you get sucked into it anyway. Baby Doll escapes her fate by retreating into a fantasy world. The exploits she performs there have an unexplained effect on reality. According to ‘Sucker Punch’, ‘retreating into your fantasy’ and ‘actively solving your problems’ are concepts that complement each other. In practice, they don’t go well together. That the film conveys a shaky message about dreams, deeds and sacrifice is something that only becomes apparent in retrospect, as is the fact that the timelines in the dream world and the reality of the asylum do not match.

Action is what ‘Sucker Punch’ is all about. The film opens strongly, with a no-dialogue introduction that shows what preceded Baby Doll’s admission to the clinic. Supporting the images is a cover of the Eurythmics classic ‘Sweet Dreams’, sung by lead actress Emily Browning. The trick of the soundtrack as a story element works great and is used by Snyder several times, with just the right song for every scene. The emphatically present music makes the film infectiously energetic, although you sometimes get the feeling that you are watching a two-hour video clip.

Snyder is at his best when he tells his story not in words, but in images. Where the dialogues tend towards tile wisdom (“If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything”), the action scenes splash from the screen. The dream concept enables the director to combine separate background worlds into a cohesive whole in which partly failed missions reverberate into overlying realities. It is a pity that four objects in four different worlds is a bit too much of a good thing; this makes the film too long and the action becomes repetitive, no matter how tough the ladies throw themselves at their task.

The style of ‘Sucker Punch’ is debatable. The oversized false eyelashes, childish hairstyles and cosplay outfits are undoubtedly not to everyone’s taste, but fit within the campy, video game-esque atmosphere of the film. The same goes for the characters. None of the girls gets much background, but that doesn’t have to bother either. This movie must have more of the adrenaline than the feeling or the mind. ‘Sucker Punch’ is girl power in top gear; a thinly spun out confectionery that turns into a gooey paste if you chew it too long, but that can easily be chewed away in between.