You’ll fall in love with WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING, the hit romantic comedy that woke everyone up to adorable Sandra Bullock (SPEED, A TIME TO KILL). As Lucy, a lonely subway worker, she becomes smitten with a handsome stranger (Peter Gallagher — MALICE). But when she saves his life after he’s been mugged and fallen into a coma, his hilariously offbeat family mistakes her for his fiancee! Soon, the mix-ups escalate as Lucy fabricates a life between herself and a man she’s never met! And when Lucy falls for his charming brother (Bill Pullman — INDEPENDENCE DAY) the situation really gets uproarious as she’s forced to make a choice between the two!If you don’t mind a heavy dose of schmaltz and sentiment, this romantic comedy has a gentle way of seducing you with its charms. While You Were Sleeping was the first starring role for Sandra Bullock after her blockbuster success in Speed. In a role that nicely emphasizes her easygoing appeal, Bullock is the reason the movie works at all. She plays Lucy Eleanor Moderatz, a Chicago Transit tollbooth clerk who’s hopelessly smitten with a daily commuter, Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher). She saves the object of her affection from certain death after he’s mugged and falls onto the train tracks. While Peter is in a coma, she lets his family believe that she is his fiancée, and surprisingly finds herself drawn to his brother (Bill Pullman), for whom the attraction is definitely mutual. How Lucy gets out of this amorous predicament is what makes this pleasant movie less predictable than its familiar ingredients would initially indicate. It’s feel-good fluff, with characters and performances that keep you smiling through the drippy plot mechanics. –Jeff Shannon
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February 7, 2006
#1
This movie is a pile of crap. Sandra Bullock either you love her or hate her. I love her and even I have trouble sitting through this. Crappy romantic comedy (is there any other kind of romantic comedy?) This isnt even funny. Just crap. Im sorry.
February 7, 2006
#2
Although trading as an amiably casual romantic comedy, ‘While You Were Sleeping ‘ is in actual fact a Horror Film. And the Fear is its central protagonist, Lucy. Cut off from the Family, unpoliced by her father, she is a single woman with an unlimited, socially disruptive potential for promiscuity, to the point where every man in the film, young or old, rich or poor, can be plausibly linked to her as a partner. The film’s movement is to rein this potential wild card in, bring her back to the Family, to a site where privacy is given up in exchange for comfort, where one is constantly being looked at by others. In such a scenario, Peter the coma-guy is not so much her ideal better half as her bad double – he IS promiscuous, he lives his life away from the family.
This gives a dark edge to what is a film smirking like a Nora Ephron clone, especially if we switch the film’s focus from its apparent heroine onto Bill Pullman’s Jack (which I would advise those with sensitive stomachs to do, those immune to Ms. Bullock’s ‘charms’). He is a kind of detective-spy, investigating Lucy to ensure that she is family-worthy and controllable. This is not to say that there aren’t tensions – Jack wants to leave his dad’s business; but there is no question of him leaving the family circle, which simply absorbs outsider-goodness, in the shapes of Lucy and godfather Saul. Indeed, fathers and their children is a major sub-theme, with Lucy looking for someone to replace her idealised dad.
To be honest, ‘Sleeping’ is only truly enjoyable whenever the wonderful Peter Gallagher is on screen, his breezing egotism a breath of fresh air in an atmosphere dank with goodwill. But if this film plays Peter’s dream – and it IS HE who is sleeping – and all the characters are reflections of HIS ego, than the film opens up far more interesting possibilities.
February 7, 2006
#3
And no, I’m not completely averse to “chick flicks”. Stupid premise, sloppy pacing, jaw-droppingly inept dialogue, no sign of intelligent life here. Why should I care? I saw it on a first- and last – date with someone so amazing looking that she would have had to commit an unspeakably offensive act in order to cool my ardor. Taking a shine to this movie was that act.
None other than Albert Brooks seconds that emotion: “Toward the last six months before I met my wife, I sort of gave up on even attempting mental communication with new women. I went with this one woman to see While You Were Sleeping-that movie with Sandra Bullock. In the car on the way home, she said to me, ‘I think that’s the funniest movie I’ve ever seen.’ And I really debated whether just to drive off Mulholland and kill ourselves right then or to drop her off first and take eight sleeping pills.”
Also worth noting while collating reasons to shun this film: Sandra Bullock always looks vaguely like she needs a bath.
February 7, 2006
#4
This is one of my favorite romantic comedies. It is funny, touching, and has some of my favorite actors in it. And it doesn’t only center around the main characters but has a great ensemble cast of very interesting people!
February 7, 2006
#5
Oh my God . . . movies like this, and for that matter PRACTICAL MAGIC and FORCES OF NATURE could kill Sandra Bullock’s movie career for good. This blatant sugar-coated swill of a chick-flick features Bullock as a lonely woman with a cat for company(aren’t they all, stereotype spotters) who saves the life of a man who falls on the tracks into the path of a subway train(shame it didn’t kill off this character and kill the film at that point). He goes into a coma, and lo and behold, Bullock’s character is so desperate she’ll pretend to be the wife of a corpse(is there subliminal necrophiliac undertones hidden between the lines of the thin excuse for a script . . . even the worst TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE spin-off novel has more shreds of intelligence) while his brother tries it on. Ho-hum. You can guess the rest, even my two pet cats could. Romance, sugar, handkerchiefs and ice cream. The standard broken-heart repair kit. Men – if your wife makes you watch this chronic nonsense, make them watch the excellent LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS for revenge. This is more my style. While I was snoozing – gets my vote for one of the top ten turkeys of all time(even the new ASTERIX movie is better.).