Zack Snyder, 'Sucker Punch,' and the Dream State

Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch" is the latest film to peel back the layers of the subconscious mind, showing how dreams can become a real coping mechanism and the ultimate escape. Snyder's adventure also explores the fine line between the conscious mind and the dream state.

Emily Browning stars as Babydoll, a young woman who, after accidentally killing her sister, is committed to an institute for the criminally insane by her stepfather. Within 5 days, though, a visiting specialist will perform a lobotomy on Babydoll, erasing her personality and last shreds of freedom . Struggling to escape this cruel reality, her mind creates an elaborate, multi-layered dream world offering the promise of sweet freedom.

Babydoll's first step to freedom is a run-down theater within the institute where the female inmates perform for paying male customers. Babydoll's routine is a seductive dance that captivates her audience and opens a portal into a dream landscape where the troubled young woman must fight for her freedom.

Babydoll's repeated trips into dreamtime bring to mind 2010's "Inception," Christopher Nolan's intriguing and frustrating look at manipulating the dream state for financial gain. Nolan's chief protagonist, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), creates intricate dream worlds in order to steal business secrets. Cobb and his wife accidentally become lost in a 'dream limbo', though, where fifty years pass inside the dream, but only minutes elapse in real time. Upon leaving the dream, nothing was ever the same for Cobb and his wife.

Exiled from his country, Cobb is offered a final chance to return home, an opportunity that requires the creation of a multi-leveled dream world. Cobb must plant an idea inside a business executive's subconscious mind that hopefully will influence his real world decisions. The difference between real time and dream time becomes more pronounced the deeper that Cobb and his team descend. The dangers of dream limbo remain a horrifying possibility as well.

Director Zack Snyder also owes a tip of his directing cap to Terry Gilliam's brilliant 1985 film "Brazil." Like Babydoll, Gilliam's protagonist Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) lives a life filled with overseers, constant oppression and frustration. Sam's only escape happens at night, when he finds freedom in his subconscious mind, visualizing himself flying free above the world. As is the case with Babydoll, elements of Sam's dream world spill over into reality, and he ultimately has to decide between these two worlds.

Like Sam, Babydoll also has a dream guide (Scott Glenn) who helps her navigate the subconscious landscape in order to achieve her ultimate goal, namely freedom. At each step in the journey, this guide offers small bits of wisdom and advice, such as "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." He also tells her what objects will help her become free, but not where or how to find them.

Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch" is Hollywood's latest attempt to unravel the world inside the dream. It's an enjoyable piece of cinema and the latest piece in a very complicated subconscious puzzle.