Review of Sleepless in Seattle (1993) by Norman F — 10 Jun 2014

This has to be one of the most annoying movies I have ever seen but for good reasons! Every moment of this film after about 20 minutes I just wanted Sam and Annie to meet and I know the whole point of the film is them meeting up, so they won't spoil that in the first hour or so and you know they're going to meet up by the end anyway, but it didn't make it any easier to watch! I didn't see this back in movie theatres back in the day but I can imagine if I was in a packed audience, it would have been quite entertaining.

It's that whole cliché of, 'turn around! He's right behind you', but thats what makes it.The film opens rather darkly but it fits the story and then the chain of reactions, that they talk about in the film, start to happen.

It's a really good watch and I enjoyed my time. For me at least, Meg Ryan was completely unrecognisable, I knew it was her but if I didn't already know beforehand I wouldn't have guessed. Tom Hanks is Tom Hanks, it doesn't matter what it is, he always gives a good performance, working brilliantly off his son in the film who also gives a good performance as he manages to bring great humor.

Rosie O'Donnell is actually another standout in this, she plays the jaded friend who has an 'eh' outlook on most things and she's really, really funny, quite a lot of the humor comes from her.

While the film is funny I don't really think comedy is it's main focus, the drama of the two main characters is the most important thing but it does provide some very great laughs before all is said and done.

The whole film, pretty much, seems grounded in reality, with the dark beginning and well rounded characters but near the end of the film it goes a bit goofy, and I didn't really believe what was happening, it isn't a bad thing but it needed to happen.

And I do wish that Meg Ryan's character was written as if she was by herself too, I just felt bad for Walter because he didn't really do anything wrong to be left, but oh well what can you do.

I haven't seen An Affair to Remember but this film definitely does play it safe, it takes elements from that, which it does with no shame but there isn't anything wrong with that because of how its executed, even the poster for the film looks like it was inspired by that.

Well written, smart, charming and immensely likeable, it's a really nice journey, even if infuriating, but for good reasons, even if our main stars spend a total of about 2 minutes together.