Australian film - 101 mins.
The bizarre and secret world of Lucy (Emily Browning) where the blandness of routine life is punctuated by an extreme alter ego of drugs, fetish, and fantasy.
Young Lucy's days consist of university, office assistant and waiting tables. She lives in what was the family home that alludes to now being owned by her sister, to which Lucy pays rent.
Her best friend is the seriously ill brother of her ex-boyfriend, and the relationship with her mother is almost non-existent.
The numbness of Lucy's existence, in itself a metaphor of Sleeping Beauty, is filled with mindless activity that extends far into the night, often with random strangers and the odd line of coke.
Adding a further twist to her story, Lucy answers and advert for a fetish-style escort agency where she consents to be drugged into a deep sleep. There she lies naked in an elaborate bedroom designed for rich aging men to escape into their own varied fantasies. While asleep, however, we sense Lucy's subconscious becomes more aware of her life...
Director Julia Leigh's vision for this voyeuristic journey was influenced by her admitted fear of being watched while you're in your most vulnerable state - while you are sleeping!
Leigh is the author of the award-winning novel The Hunter and Disquiet, and this is her debut film. For me it has a tone of Sophia Copola's Somewhere about it.
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