Great movie with surprisingly clever, well-thought out and satisfying story

Rating: 9/10 (1 April 2011)

On first look this movie might appear as stylized, loud and action-driven. But this is only one side of this movie. After giving it much thought and having talked with friends, the movie's story revealed itself as clever, well-thought out and very satisfying. Here's my interpretation:
The essential twist consists in the fact that the fantasy worlds (brothel/fighting scenes) are imagined not by Baby Doll, but by Sweet Pea. This is a variation of the "unreliable narrative" which is in fashion nowadays.
Snyder reveals the resolution to us with the very first lines: "Everyone has an angel..." When Sweet Pea sees Baby Doll for the first time in the big hall of the institution, she decides to make Baby Doll her personal "angel": just pay attention to Sweet Pea's look over to Baby Doll and her appearance as a bearing angel with her blonde hair. For this reason, in the first scene in the brothel, Sweet Pea looks like "her angel" with her blond wig and she even says that she is the star of this "show"; after all, she has created this world and not Baby Doll, and she lets her fight for/along with herself.
After Baby Doll gives herself up at the end to the suitors gathered before the brothel and deflects them, Sweet Pea succeeds in escaping to the outside gate of the brothel - but also in reality; and there she has used Baby Doll's lobotomy as a diversion. It is furthermore revealed that the abstraction of items in the imaginations (brothel/fighting scenes) is reflected in the reality.
Why does the boy as well as the old man appear in the final scene? You can answer this in several ways:
1. Sweet Pea's reality is unreliable, as mentioned above, thus, one can credit her with mixing the impressions of her imagination with reality (the bus driver possibly looks like the Wise Man because she understands him as a guide/aide - and for her, the archetypical guide/aide's figure looks this way)
2. No dream is merely a dream: at a more metaphoric level, hope is given that our most inner thoughts can also affect the outermost reality - and with it, our imagination potential is encouraged - what is also pronounced explicitly within the final monologue: "... YOU!"