Zack Snyder’s latest visceral slice of insanity is like an adolescent’s wet dream.
Zack Snyder’s latest visceral slice of insanity is like an adolescent’s wet dream. If it’s not the giant samurai, steampunk World War I soldiers, dragons and slinky robots, it’s the bordello dream world a young woman imagines to escape the horrors of a 1960s mental asylum. A proto-feminist fantasy wrapped in video-game iconography, Sucker Punch also called on Aussie rising stars Emily Browning and Abbie Cornish to undergo an intense bout of physical training to realise their director’s ambitious vision.
Snyder, who began his feature career auspiciously – and bravely – with his slick remake of Dawn Of The Dead, is best known for the spectacles of 300 and Watchmen. He has a flair for slow-mo action and over-the-top visuals, and Sucker Punch – his first original project – is no exception. The film tells the story of Babydoll (Browning), a young woman plotting to escape a gothic mental institution after being incarcerated by her nasty step-father for the accidental murder of her sister. Staving off a scheduled lobotomy at the hands of a dashing doctor (played by Mad Men’s Jon Hamm), she devises a method of escape that recalls both Inception’s dream-within-a-dream theatrics and Japanese anime. It’s these flights of fancy that take her first to the sleazy brothel/burlesque house, and later into combat in lavish, mostly CGI-rendered environments.
It’s a difficult film to describe, not least because Snyder, who shares screenplay credit, is sketchy on the details. If anyone could have pulled off this ambitious, slightly mad project, it was him, but what surprised Browning was how in touch he was with the story. “I always trusted Zack in terms of visuals even before we started filming, and I wondered how he was going to be on a personal level as a director, and he was amazing,” the actress enthuses. “I mean, he was so open to as much rehearsals as we needed. He wanted to talk about the development of the characters as much as we wanted to. He was really open to collaboration in terms of creating the emotional storyline for all of the characters.”
Those characters are Babydoll’s partners in crime: the impulsive Rocket (Jena Malone), the not-blonde Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), the machine-hog Amber (Jamie Chung), and the physically imposing Sweet Pea, played stalwartly by Abbie Cornish. All five women appeal in all three “layers” of the film: first as grimy asylum inmates, then tarted up erotic dancers under the watchful eye of Madamn Gorski (Watchmen-alum Carla Gugino) and mob-boss, Blue Jones (Robin Hood’s Oscar Issac), and finally as leather-clad warriors armed with machine guns and samurai swords.
Cornish’s Sweet Pea, modelled after was seems to be Joan of Arc, is the senior figure of the group, and is initially wary of Babydoll’s fanciful escape plan. Of her, Cornish says: “For me it was the journey of someone who was suppressed, someone who was surviving, someone who had put all the fragile parts of her, the sensitive parts of her, deep down, locked away where no-one could get them. And then to let that bird out of the cage, to let that be free and journey into the light.”
A beauty with an almost primal inner strength, Cornish’s rise in Hollywood is largely due to her sterling performances in Aussie indies (Somersault, Candy) and costume dramas (Jane Campion’s exquisite Bright Star). With both Sucker Punch and Limitless (where she stars as Bradley Cooper’s on-again-off-again girlfriend) currently playing in cinemas,and an upcoming role in Madonna’s second directorial effort, W.E., one feels she’s on the verge of superstardom.
By comparison, Browning, all grown up following her 2004-turn in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, is a newbie, but no less eager to throw herself into the demands – and risks – of a big budget studio action film. “I attempt to make films that are different from everything else I’ve done, so I love the idea of doing action,” she offers. “It’s something I’ve always been interested in, but never really thought it would happen for me.”
Part of the attraction were the film’s intense physical demands. The five girls punch, shoot, kick, and impale innumerable faceless monsters (literally, in some cases – their World War I German machine-gun fodder were made to wear steam-powered gas masks to get the R-rating knocked down to a PG-13 in the United States). To prepare for their roles, the actresses went through an intensive three-month boot camp which involved mixed martial arts, gun training, and weight training with the Navy Seals.
“I love the idea of training for a film, of coming into the character from a physical place,” says Cornish, who felt at ease with the physical challenges having grown up on 170-acre farm in the Hunter Valley in NSW, where her brothers taught her to shoot guns and crossbows. “Usually [acting] is so mental, and usually about research and figuring things out – it’s very cerebral. And then the physicality eventuates and you figure that out. It was interesting to start physically and train like soldiers.”
“We would go in and warm up with the martial arts guys, the stunt guys,” says Browning. “We would work on our martial arts and fight choreography for a couple of hours, then we would have a break and have a protein smoothie or something, and then we’d work out with the Navy Seals and do strength training for an hour or two. We would sometimes go and do gun training or some wire-work. It was about six to eight hours a day, all up.”
The sweat, tears and camaraderie were all in the name of female empowerment – one complete with sexy leather corsets, swords and M4-carbine rifles. It was this feminism angle that was a big draw for the film’s young stars. “I think the sisterhood in the movie is really strong. Even if they come from vulnerable places, every girl has a moment when she finds herself in the film – finds her strength and individuality – I think that’s important for young people to see,” Cornish explains.
Audiences – and especially critics (the film currently holds a 20% positive-rating on Rotten Tomatoes) – are more divided. But even though the film skirts explanations in favour of action set pieces, Sucker Punch is a more complex beast than most are giving credit: while it’s hard to escape the notion that it’s a simplistic feminist fantasy viewed through the lens of a 12-year old boy, there is complexity in its depiction of oppressed, presumably sexually abused women who become powerful, liberated action-heroines. But even then, they’re directed on their quest for freedom by a man – an enjoyably cheesy Scott Glen – who drops in to explain the ins and outs of the film’s extravagant action sequences.
Browning, however, is adamant: “They’re being oppressed to some degree, but I think the whole idea of the film is them breaking free, and learning to fight against that, and finding their own freedom in their mind, finding their own strength, and sacrificing things for people that they love. So I actually find that an amazing, cool and empowering message for girls.”
Sucker Punch is currently playing nationally in cinemas and is rated M for frequent action violence and mature themes. If you like things exploding and girls with guns then this one’s for you.
