Lucy In Sleeping Beauty

A bleak, stark white scene opens Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty. The protagonist, Lucy, enters the frame and blends in perfectly. Her pale skin, light hair, and rustled white top are in perfect unison with the monochromatic scene catching her stuff a tube down her throat as a research subject. Compelled to watch this unsettling scene for several minutes, it sets the pace for the remainder of the movie. Lucy is a lifeless college student that goes about her days earning money through whatever means. From waiting tables to engaging in under the table sexual activities, devoid of emotion, she makes a living. Lucy soon takes up a job from the newspaper with a mistress named Clara. She is required to take a narcotic putting her to sleep for the night.
Currently, Lucy is a character that lacks personality and goes about her life in a trance-like state. She can almost be considered as sleeping through her life. In the tale of Sleeping Beauty, the princess is cursed with sleep until her prince comes to wake her from her dreams. In Julia Leigh’s depiction of the film, there is no prince that is clearly labeled. Birdman is unable to be the prince as he is not a romantic interest for Lucy; he’s simply a friend. Her ex-boyfriend is the only character that emerges in the film entailing a prince like character paradigm. He is swift to tell her that his new girlfriend is courteous, a mannerism Lucy should consider. The trait itself is synonymous with kindness; one of the several gifts the fairies gave the Princess in the original telling of the story. Lucy is unable to emerge as a courteous princess, as her Prince never woke her from her sleep. Rather she is a social pariah, talking little and risking more than what others would. Had Lucy married her former boyfriend when she had the chance, she would not be in the situation she was in today. Being in a relationship would have prevented her from taking risqué jobs, allowing her to explore other alternatives. For instance, had she ended up with her Prince, Lucy could have gone to school with someone to come home to rather than an empty home with endless opportunities to go astray. Because she was unable to wake from her sleep, Lucy missed out on a happy life with her