Review of Sleeper (2012) by Andy F — 12 Jul 2013

Sleeper is a decent attempt by Woody Allen at satirical slapstick comedy, and it although it isn't entirely successful and sometimes borders the line between irritating and funny, it goes by quickly and it's a fun, simple ride. It's one of those movies where the first half, even if flawed, is the superior half of the two, and from there on it goes downhill, but it's still enjoyable. It's a ridiculous and bizarrely funny movie, if to a fault, and its premise alone will probably make you chuckle. The comedy genre is filled to the brim with unfunny, incoherent movies, and when a comedy is done right, it can completely reverse how you feel and brighten up your day, but Sleeper is just in the middle. I was laughing at the first half and I felt like this was top-notch humor, but about half way through, the non-stop jokes slow down a little and the film loses steam to make way for Diane Keaton's astonishingly irritating character that bogs down the film at a pretty huge rate, at least for me. Even then, it's not like the second half was anything remarkably bad, it's just that I wish it retained some of the same escapism humor that the first half stood out with.

Sleeper has a truly bizarre premise that is hard to resist. Sleeper is about a man named Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) who enters the hospital for an operation in 1973. However, the procedure goes wrong and he wakes up nearly 200 years later by a group of scientists, finding himself in a dystopia that resembles George Orwell's "1984". Based on that premise alone, it's impossible to expect anything other than a ridiculous and absurd comedy, and when it comes to craziness regarding the humor, it delivers. It's a very silly movie, and it's full of slapstick and one liners reminiscent to silent films' slapstick comedy. If that's not your cup of tea, I doubt you would find much enjoyment here, because the film mostly relies on that kind of stuff. You don't quite realize that it's a comedy until a few minutes in after the futuristic scientists uncover Woody's body from the past, and right when his goofy face appears, it's clear that this film will be a very silly one. Woody is great and hilarious here, and he has this odd charm that's very hard to resist. Lots of his one liners are uproariously hilarious, and his facial expressions are comedic gold. The thing about both his direction and his performance here are they're so simple, yet they allow the humor to flow so nicely, quickly going from one joke to another, never too fast nor never too slow.

What I found interesting about the futuristic world that Woody portrayed here was the fact that it was like a satirical, very silly version of a dystopian fantasy, and it never takes it seriously. It draws a wide range of ideas from dystopian sci-fi, including 1984 by George Orwell, but rather than making the attempt of reflecting it seriously, it makes fun of it and makes light of a scenario like that. The whole film is like an homage to dystopian fantasies and silent comedies (although there are lots of one liners, that is), and the end result is not extremely complex by any means, but it's a small scale, pretty funny comedy. I really liked the visuals here, and they were interesting to look at, especially all of the aspects regarding how Woody would imagine a scenario like this to be like. It has this strange aura of cheesiness, yet it's really fascinating and fun to look at, combing sci-fi design elements from movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, with all of the white set designs that manage to have a lot to say. I also really liked how the servants looked like (Woody Allen's impression of them is on the poster), and they were very funny, especially when at a certain point they start malfunctioning and they bump into walls, and I chuckled.

The main problem is the fact that about half way through, Diane Keaton's character is introduced, and for a majority of the film she isn't very likable, which is a big problem. I'm not sure why, since this doesn't exactly have to do with her character, but after she was introduced, the humor surrounding her, such as the humor by Woody Allen, oddly become less funny. Throughout the film, there's this somewhat annoying clarinet music that plays over the slapstick, and it's pretty distracting if you ask me. It often becomes loud and obnoxious rather than adding to the comedic element of the movie, and that's a problem. I'm not a huge fan of slapstick, but when it's done right, it's very funny. For example, lots of the slapstick near the beginning such as the introductory scenes of Woody are downright hilarious, yet overtime, they become somewhat redundant and irritating, rather than silly, yet funny and enjoyable. It often steps away from its central concept and in a way becomes uninteresting, especially as some elements are handled poorly, such as the "Underground" organization, yet it doesn't really matter because it's a simple comedy that's main intention is to tickle your funny bone.

Sleeper is a hard film to "hate", mainly because the good outweighs the bad. It's not perfect, and it doesn't need to be, and even if I had some pretty big problems with the movie, it's hard to deny the enjoyment I got from this movie. It goes by quickly, it's straight to the point with both its ideas regarding its concept as well as its humor, and it's an overall exciting experience. At times, the jokes are hit-and-miss, and some jokes I really didn't find all too funny, but its humor like Rags the dog and the jetpack slapstick that makes everything forgivable. It works as enjoyable escapism humor (even if that aspect mostly applies to the first hour), and it's clear that Woody Allen is an intelligent director with both his examination of society as well as his sometimes thoughtful humor, even if most of the humor in this movie is silly. To me, Sleeper is no masterpiece, but it's fast paced and it's an enjoyable experience that's hard to resist.