Review of Sleepwalk with Me (2012) by Matthew M — 17 Jan 2013

Comedian Mike Birbiglia pulls an Annie Hall with this semi-autobiographical tale of a Comedian struggling with a relationship about to take the next step. He plays Matt and begins this story when he first moved in with his girlfriend, Abby. Out of the two, Abby has the more focus. Matt who is trying to be a comedian can't seem to get his shit together. In fact, when he tries to do comedy he keeps failing to make people laugh. Other contributing factors include his sudden sleepwalk disorder which becomes brought on when he's stressed out. In this case, it's his relationship to Abby that causes him the most anxiety due to her wanting marriage.

Marriage?! He doesn't even know how to buy cereal yet. For the moment he doesn't want to process the idea of marriage, but Abby begins to have thoughts concerning that if he isn't even going to give it a thought than maybe they both shouldn't be together. Of course this type of thing doesn't deter the both of them from loving one another. He loves Abby. Ever since he first laid his eyes on her it was true love. The recreation of how they first met was very sweet. He would always bump into her every chance he could and got her to go on a date with him at a church. When it came to sex, she was the first to initiate it at a Bed & Breakfast. It was hilarious in how he compared his relationship with her at that time to one of those John Hughes movies. In this case, he was Molly Ringwald.

Being in a relationship with her does provide some unsettling feedback from his relatives. They love her, but see her as the best thing in his life so far. They overlook his other passion which is being a comedian. It's something he's always wanted to strive for (well, that or becoming rapper or owning a pizza restaurant where 3rd graders come to hang out). The material he tries to come up with fails to make anyone laugh. Until he gets a few gigs which keeps himself at bay from his girlfriend, he starts to crank out material that comes from his current situation with his girlfriend.

Comedy comes from pain. Once you express that pain in ways that makes people laugh then you're in the game. He strikes gold with this material, but unfortunately it doesn't solve his others problems. His sleep disorder is persistent, his relationship begins to dwindle and his focus on what he SHOULD be doing is something he keeps avoiding. He has a fear of marriage because he believes it'll fail. Well, that's something to realize if you GET FUCKING MARRIED! Yes, the what if's can tumble into people's brains, but if you truly know it's not going to work out then it's best to leave. However, if you're sooooo preoccupied with the negative just because you have a morbid fear of divorce down the road then of course the relationship will break up. Because doing stupid shit in the name of fear is the dumbest fucking thing you can do to ruin a relationship!

I didn't have much sympathy for Matt. I was very disappointed with how this asshole takes the best thing in his life and throws it away because of his own insecurities. Well Done!

Aside from the relationship melodrama crap, I did enjoy Mike Birbiglia's take on two subjects: sleep disorders and trying to be a comedian. Those were the only parts of this film that I recommend because they worked extremely well. The relationship his character has got in the way of what could have been a better film.