Original and Bold but maybe not what audiences wanted

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2011)

Many have proffered their own interpretations, and this is just my own.As many have said, I believe the film is all a fantasy taking place in "Sweet Peas" head, a cathartic fantasy designed to help her expunge her demons and overcome her psychological problems, perhaps with the aid of a counsellor/therapist (The Carla Gugino character?) What these "traumas" may be is unclear, but they probably involve sexual violence and or/guilt, and the accidental death/harm of a younger sister, since this same act occurs twice in the movie, both in romanticised "dying to protect from harm" scenarios. Her desire to return home though may mean that the violence of the films many stereotyped sexual predators may be external to the family unit (Date rape?) Many seem to take it for granted that the "50s Asylum" level of reality is the ultimate "reality", but I suggest that it too is just another fantasy level – being just as much a caricatured surreal demi-world as the Burlesque theatre or the WWI battlefields – which explains why so many things that happen there don't make sense. I believe that, as with some interpretations of INCEPTION, the whole thing is being concocted in some other layer of reality which we never get to see. Also people complain that aside from Sweet Pea and her sister Rocket, none of the other characters are fleshed out or real, which would support this interpretation since Sweet Pea is her own avatar, while her sister (idealised version?) is made from many genuine memories of a real person, whereas the others are just shades, faces from a crowd given a generic role to play. All of the girls (bar Rocket) are elements of Sweet Peas own personality, actresses in her cathartic experience. Each has a role to play, and it was interesting for example that in each fantasy, "Amber" is the pilot, a role usually evoking control, but not much was made of it."Baby Doll" who is erroneously introduced to us as the heroine (Which she is, even though she does not exist!) is Sweet Peas own personal guardian angel (as per the narratives). As many have said, she seems to have almost no character, no lines, no expressions and looks oddly like a doll. I believe that she may actually very well be just that – A Doll! Perhaps a beloved childhood companion, someone to protect and to give comfort during the dark times, a mouthpiece for her own desires and wants (her role here..) and someone would could be put into danger (as dolls often are) as she is here. She is a safety valve to at once remove Sweet Pea from her own perils and anxieties, now given full human form to become once again Sweet Peas "other voice" and the heroine of her adventure, her saviour. Her symbolic "death" at the end, rather than the expected rescue and revenge, may also represent the death of childhood and innocence, and the Sweet Peas acceptance of her role as an adult (and her return to her milieu as an adult) This fantasy world created by Snyder is, to his credit, an authentically adolescent one, a credible window into a how a teenager would see the world, and a modern one at that. Her fantasies are actually rather mundane and pedestrian (another popular complaint) and also all second hand and acquired. The World War 1 sequence is exactly how a teenager might imagine the war, all Zeppelins and Fokker Triplanes, with a "good vs evil" idea of the conflict that makes the Germans into literal monsters (rather like the imagined Persians in 300) The Samurai scene and the girls uniforms are all borrowed from Manga, the dragon scene is unashamedly the result of someone who has been excitedly reading/watching "THE LORD OF THE RINGS", and the final scene of ticking bombs and evil robots another movie/computer game take, also a way of reliving her sister tragedy within generically comfortable boundaries. Even the Asylum and the Burlesque are what someone who had been watching the odd old movie might imagine those worlds to be like, with their stock baddies, bad doctors and Zoot Suit gangsters. Sex is also a central theme here, the fear of sex (sexual predators), the power of her own burgeoning sexuality (the dances) and the threat/possible experience of sexual violence. The twin threats her Baby Doll avatar faces, deflowering and Lobotomisation, are both distinctly phallic threats involving forced penetration, again mirroring a fear of sex (That her Baby Doll actually is lobotomised and seemingly invites it would again suggest acceptance of sex) The Glenn wise man is a clear mythopoetic "guide" and may be either a kindly uncle or teacher, or perhaps even her own father. The finale, still a fantasy, shows her accepting her return home as a fully formed young woman, having overcome her fears and doubts and possible terrible experiences, with the most oft used metaphor, the bus (driven by her protecting father figure)/ That's my take on it anyway. It may be right, part right, or totally wrong, but I guess Snyder wants us each to have our own "correct" personal interpretation of it, hence the ambiguity. That the film is initially proving a box office and critical bomb is unsurprising, and will probably spend a few years in the wilderness before being "re-evaluated" as all greats are. Alas this film is being currently sold as an action packed Saturday day adventure, when it's really a dark, somewhat joyless journey through a tormented teenagers angst, and audiences are perhaps rightly feeling cheated