Film Review: ‘Sucker Punch’ Has Dazzling Imagery, Wham-Bam

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CHICAGO – It’s a pleasure to see the comic book film done right, especially with the visionary guidance of director Zach Snyder (”300”). “Sucker Punch” is an amazing treat, a feast of eye candy and incredible adventure.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Working in three parallel planes, Sucker Punch creates a theme of female empowerment as more than a revenge factor, it actually fulfills the promise of both the individual struggle and the super-heroic team. The story also has a richness that is deeper than the usual Zach Snyder fare, surpassing even the darkness of “Watchmen” (2009) in revealing secrets and character energy.

Baby Doll (Emily Browning) is a steely-eyed teenager whose stepfather (Gerald Plunkett) flies into a rage after he finds out he’s been disinherited from her family fortune. After killing her sister during a tussle, he pins the rap on Baby Doll, and commits her to a mental institution. There she meets Dr. Gorski (Carla Gugino), an unconventional psychotherapist whose techniques include music and movement as a healing agent.

Baby Doll drifts into a parallel world, where Dr. Gorski is a floor show director for a cheap and tawdry nightclub. Doll meets fellow performers Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) amd her sister Rocket (Jena Malone) and is asked to do some improvisational dancing. As Gorski puts on the music, Baby Doll’s dance materializes yet another parallel world, this time inventing herself as a ultra-hero, given instructions by the Wise Man (Scott Glenn). To escape her prisons, the Wise Man advises her to collect four specific items from various obstacles within her captivity.

To obtain these items, it is up to Baby Doll to use the music and the dance as sort of hypnotic state, seducing the sleazy club owner (Blue, portrayed by Oscar Isaac) into distraction. The dance also allows her companions – Sweet Pea, Rocket and Amber the Pilot (Jamie Chung) – to help her battle demons in these diverse other worlds. It is when these assorted demons are cast away that freedom becomes another step closer.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Sucker Punch”

Rocking the Cradle: Emily Browning as Baby Doll in ‘Sucker Punch’ Photo credit: Clay Enos for Warner Bros. Pictures

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Sucker Punch”