Sucker Punch (2011)

Because my vacation it's soon to be over (damn, that was fast ...) I'm starting again to lack the time for writing. And today I should really take my time and focus on this. Not to say that I'm also struck by a lack of inspiration these days. So ... I'm saying that I should take all the time needed because I'm writing about something that really deserves the minutes spent on it, about something that was completely different than what I was expecting and about something that was probably misunderstood both by public and critics looking at the ratings it has - that something = "Sucker Punch".

I was expecting something full of effects, of action, with a very thin story, without much substance, and I only had some small hopes of not being very boring taking in account that what was previously directed by Zack Snyder wasn't. However, from his entire filmography this was the lowest rated flick so even these hopes weren't very big. Therefore, initially, I've ignored the movie and when I had the opportunity to see it on big screen, I preferred "The Adjustment Bureau" as an alternative (damn big mistake, that movie was a mess). So, finally, after quite some time since it was released I'm finally writing about "Sucker Punch" after last week when I said something like - "ok, it's vacation, I have a couple of hours to lose with some mindless action". What can I say after ... it does have indeed enough action, and it's full of effects. And talking about this, what I was saying last time about "I Am Number Four" being on my top of the list on VFX for the current year, "Sucker Punch" pretty much took its place ( although "the telekinetic stuff" still seems a bit more original :) ). Anyway, this doesn't have much importance. What's more important is that my low expectations were completely demolished by what I've seen. Let's start with the story ...

Apparently it's not a very complex one, and because of that I'm sorry due to the fact the next part might be considered a pretty big spoiler regarding the effective action taking place in the movie. What we have are two sisters terrorized by their stepfather after the suspect death of their mother. The little sister dies during a quarrel between the three of them (I'll be back to that) and the older sister is imprisoned in a mental asylum being charged with the murder. The stepfather pays one of the institution assistants, who seems to rule the place, to arrange a lobotomy of the girl, which is supposed to take place in five days. In this time "the patient" prepares an escape plan ... or ... And this "or" that might be also placed in other places above transforms the story from something relatively simple in something quite complex. First, let me get back to the above parenthesis about the little sister's death. It seems there exists also an extended version of the movie. In the original one you're not told very clear by whom is killed the younger sister the impression you get being that the stepfather is the killer. In the extended version this part seems to be clarified, but not the way you would expect it, the death being accidental, caused by a missed bullet, the guilty one being indeed the older sister. Well ... if you take some thought on it, all this changes the way you perceive the movie in the shorter version. And actually because of this I consider the short version more interesting, in this lying the main value of the movie = ... the "or"s mentioned above. You have the possibility to give a larger number of interpretations to what you see. The extended version probably will offer only some satisfaction by showing you some of these you wouldn't have thought about.

Getting back to the last "or" from the end of the story described above, this one relates mainly to the way you can see that escape plan from the asylum. The idea is presented as an allegory taking place in the mind of the incarcerated girl. Although even this is questionable ( from the moment in time when this is imagined, to the context, etc ) ... but I won't detail it in here. An allegory in which the patients from the female wing of the asylum are actually dancers in a club that seems to have also a secondary brothel function. The escape involves the girls who want to get out of there by fooling the pimp who is the same with the tyrannic assistant from the real life. Well ... you can take all this story with its elements and associate them various interpretations. You can even get to the extreme of looking at the allegory as the real life and as the real life as what's imagined, trying to explain yourself
what appears in one version and is missing in the other one ... and it might work ( at least up to a certain point .. I didn't have the time to try :) ). That's the beauty of the movie ... It gives you the possibility to think. Probably the critic that bashed it so hard wasn't able to see any of this behind all the action, effects and the more or less naked actresses. Because if you're not able to see behind these ... what you'll get is probably just a pretty chaotic movie which won't offer much besides plain headaches trying to figure out where it begins and where it ends.

Visually I really enjoyed the movie. For some people it might look kitsch, but for me the VFX part was, as I said already above, very appealing for the eye. This, altogether with the chromatic filter excess (for which I have a weakness since very long ago) and with the alternation of warm and cold on these. The soundtrack sounds nice and fits perfectly with the action, even if its not very original = mostly (if not entirely) is composed from covers on other tracks (more or less known). For directing, due to all what I said above I consider it as being the best Zack Snyder movie up to this day ( so quite the opposite to most of the critics on the planet think of :) ). About the actors .. what can I say ... we have again ( and it's probably the third case consecutively :) ) "a guys movie" = action + girls . Leaving that apart, I wasn't ever impressed by the one who has the leading role - Emily Browning, and it doesn't happen here neither .. but I can say that's probably her best role from what I've seen up till now (though I won't tag it as "exceptional", just ok).

To end with, I'll refer a bit to the title of the movie with the risk (again ..) of some spoilers. The whole idea of a movie that can be seen and interpreted in different ways is supported by this title. And this is due to the fact that even the title it's not something clear, not being explained directly during the movie. In other words, it's just like it says "yo, look at least for what that means if you didn't get it yet that you should see a bit more behind what you actually see on screen". Well, one of the possible meanings for a "Sucker Punch" might be given by the fact that the entire movie you'll probably have the impression that the story should end in a certain way. And the final will tell you that it's not like this. What I want to say to be clear is that I'm not talking about a classic unexpected finale idea, but more that the movie from my perspective tries somewhere in the end to abruptly change a certain feeling it actually formed and worked on making you believe it as the right way to end the story up to that point by showing you that's not the right way, ergo "the sucker punch". At least this is how I see it. I have no clue if this was also the motivation for the title given by Zack Snyder, because I remember that I read some time ago about an interview where he was asked more about what he meant to show in the movie, but at that time I wasn't very interested. Anyway, for me is one of the few movies that show up during a year where it doesn't really count what the heck the director wanted to transmit but more that he managed to make it open to interpretation and analysis. Further than that, to quote the movie "you have all the weapons you need" ;)

Rating: 5 out of 5