The Thousands

WTF was that all about? Julia Leigh’s elegantly shot directorial debut is so still and opaque – like a saucer of milk – that you could interpret it however you want. Leigh offers no answers. You could also claim the influences of various other directors: Haneke; Kubrick (Sleeping Beauty is more than a little Eyes Wide Shut) or von Trier. But as a viewing experience, it reminded me most of my valiant effort to make sense of Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control.

First seen gagging as she submits to a medical experiment, cash-strapped uni student Lucy (Emily Browning) is provocatively passive. She deliberately lets stuff happen to her; the choices she makes are reckless and impulsive. Death feels imminent, whether it’s Leigh’s funereal ceremoniousness or Lucy’s odd friendship with Birdmann (Ewen Leslie), who’s either terminally ill or drinking himself to death.

So it’s not a stretch for Lucy to pop sleeping pills and become a living RealDoll for rich old men in a specialist, no-penetration brothel run by Clara (Rachael Blake). In three unflinching scenes they manhandle Lucy’s limp, naked body; Browning’s commitment to her role is pretty hardcore. But it’s unclear if Lucy ever wakes up to herself.