Short Take: Points for solid action and great imagery, points off for lousy writing

Director: Zack Snyder

Screenwriters: Zack Snyder, Steve Shibuya

Cast: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, Scott Glenn, Jon Hamm, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung

Length: 1h 50m

Synopsis: A newly orphaned girl, nicknamed Baby Doll (Browning), gets forcibly admitted into a psychiatric hospital after she accidentally kills her sister in defending her against their newly appointed legal guardian’s sexual assaults. Her admittance is mainly so her guardian can attain her inheritance, but we see that the grief she has been dealing with is actually beginning to affect her mind. While in the hospital Baby Doll befriends some fellow girl internees nicknamed Rocket (Malone), Blondie (Hudgens), Sweet Pea (Cornish), and Amber (Chung). The girls are forced to work by doing chores around the hospital as well as dance for rich men who come in to see their provocatively choreographed performances. The warden-like boss of the facility, Blue (Isaac), is stunned to see that Baby Doll turns out to be a phenomenal dancer, and plans to make a lot of money off of her shows. However, Baby Doll and the girls have no intention of sticking around any longer and form a plan to break out. It won’t be easy, and with the prospect of freedom comes the risk of death, but the girls push on in hopes of a better life.

Analysis: Interestingly enough, there isn’t any actual dancing to be found in this film despite the fact that each of the girls we’re introduced to look more than capable of doing so very well. Instead, whenever a dance sequence is hinted to be forthcoming we are transported into another world. That world, we are meant to believe, is inside Baby Doll’s mind. During her visits there she is given outlandish, militaristic objectives which force her to exercise incredible physical feats that enable her to take down giants, infiltrate a WWI German bunker, and slay a dragon, among other things. This imaginary world functions as a different reality for Baby Doll, as well as the girls who follow her. It may possibly be thought of as a place to escape the hardships of the real world, but that there are so many more dangers there (however insubstantial) it hardly seems like the type of place to vacation. Its allure is said to be its allowance of freedom, which is what the girls seek, but with the ubiquitous violence and multitude of perilous missions, how much freedom can one really be expected to have? What the fantasy seems to actually be is a mixture of the freedom of the world outside the hospital and captivity of the world inside, as well as a continuation of the ascension of madness that stems from Baby Doll’s life before her admission and her life during it. It is the battle ground between the hope she clings to and the dejection she is forced to confront.

One motif that stands out is that of the theater stage. From the opening credits (which literally draw up the curtain, a la Moulin Rouge!) to the ending credits (where we can watch some of the characters act as lounge singers) actual and impromptu stages play almost as big a part as the characters. Stages can symbolize a number of things, but in this film they appear to only further the idea that what we are seeing is fantasy. It is namely Baby Doll’s fantasy, and she uses her time on the stage (which for us is the movie screen) to state a public message, attempting to explicitly articulate the thesis of the entire story. Unfortunately, that thesis is not very coherent. Perhaps the biggest reason for this is because it is difficult to tell exactly who it is the thesis pertains to: is it young girls? all females? everyone in general? We can assume whatever we want, but when left with that freedom the thesis loses much of whatever impact it might have otherwise had – which wouldn’t have been a whole lot anyways. Also, that the fantasy tale takes place within the illusory world of Baby Doll’s mind, which is discernable as such by the framing narrative that bookends the entire film, makes the thesis unnecessarily elusive.

Baby Doll's imagination is wildly intense, but her meditations are fairly obtuse

Baby Doll’s mental fragility ties into what is perhaps the film’s most obvious social statement, which is the encouragement of attractive young women to use their sexuality as a weapon. Such behavior is sometimes, in extreme cases, considered disturbed, and can be due to an intrapsychic conflict. The very beginning of the movie is what gives us the ammunition to think this. That Baby Doll has to try to save her little sister from sexual abuse allows us to consider the possibility that Baby Doll herself has had to fend off, if not endure, such abuse before. Her new environment can also play a role in reinforcing any psycho-sexual problems she might have. That her guardian used sex as a form of abuse, and the “hospital” encourages her to use her sexuality as a tool to get what she wants, it is understandable that she would think to use her sexuality as a weapon in order to escape. The fantasies we are exposed to can be viewed as her way of dealing with this reality. They are (generally) positive literal constructions of her aim to use sexuality as a weapon, which may also help her to cope with her overwhelming grief in that she gains a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment from them. Some may think of the concept of using female sexuality as a weapon to be pro-feminist, while others might think it to be appalling because it endorses the harmful notion that using one’s sexuality is the only way for women to compete in a male-governed society. I will refrain from taking either side. For the purposes of this film, the use of sexuality as a weapon is meant to be seen as a symptom of mental anguish, exacerbated by grief and a detrimental environment, which is the consequence of sexual abuse. While we are meant to believe that the end of Baby Doll’s story is some sort of uplifting triumph of the will, those she is supposedly emboldening or inspiring are hopefully fewer in number than what would cause the film to be a hallmark for those feeling culturally repressed. And in any case, Sucker Punch can’t be the best option for choosing such a symbol.

Rating: 6.5

Comments are closed.