Another Trip To Willoughby

Rating: 6/10 (2 April 2011)

Watching Sucker Punch put me in mind of a great old Twilight Zone episode A Stop At Willoughby. Young Emily Browning has been committed to an asylum where apparently all the patients are young and nubile women who are played by Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, and Jane Chang. There seems to be a good reason for that as these women have to dance alluring dances and perform other services for high rolling customers. A way for the asylum to make some money.
Like James Daly in the Twilight Zone episode who was a modern businessman under great job pressure looking for an escape, these women want to escape as well. He found an exit in an unscheduled stop in a town called Willoughby which looks like a set from The Music Man. The girls also want an escape into life beyond the walls of this place they're trapped in.
More I can't say lest I divulge the secret of the plot. But Browning and Daly both want out of the life they're trapped in and each finds a similar solution. Scott Glenn has a mysterious and unique role similar to the train conductor in the Twilight Zone episode.
Sucker Punch because a lot of it takes place in the imagination has a great show of special effects virtuosity. If you're not terribly concerned about story and plot as I am, this is the film for you. The girls are lovely to look at also and they have great fighting skills or their stunt doubles do.