Review of While You Were Sleeping (1995) by Bill C — 20 Nov 2012

To find a romantic comedy both funny and romantic is very hard to come by. 1995's "While You Were Sleeping" does that very thing. While in my eyes, Sandra Bullock is hit or miss with some of her film choices, but shortly after the success of Speed, and a very underrated film, "The Net", she was just starting to become etched into the minds of the movie going public.

She plays a very likable charachter here, who goes by the name of Lucy, a lonely toll booth operator at a Chicago transit railway, who always had big dreams thanks to her late father, who always taught her to dream big, but dreams haven't gotten her the things she's wanted in life, and while her life isn't drawl, it's merely content. The thing I like most about the Lucy charachter is that while she pines for a man, she doesen't need one to have a sense of identity, she just wants a spark in her life.

Day after day Lucy looks forward to seeing a pretty boy attorney coming her way, he's played by Peter Gallagher. But when disaster strikes, as he is hassled by a couple of young thugs, and falls onto the railway tracks, Lucy rushes to save him, and while I won't reveal how, suddenly is mistook for the man's fiancee, and is quickly embraced by his loving family. To go along with Bullock's likability as Lucky, the family is perfectly cast as a loving bunch drawn from a cloth of an easy going suburban family, who were written to be what a family should be in a film, and that is a family. See, too often in movies like this, the family and friends are painted as cartoonish buffoons who crack jokes that aren't funny. You have Peter Boyle, best known as Frank Barone on "Everybody Loves Raymond", playing a nicer version of that charachter, the always funny and reliable Glynis Johns, and of course Jack Warden as the longtime family friend who's every bit as part of the family as anyone else. The family's likability as charachters were important to a film like this, because despite the originality of the plot, there are still un-escapable cliches that hit every romance film, the only thing I want from any filmaker, is to take those cliches and do something with them.

Of course, amongst the family, Lucy meets Jack, played by Bill Pullman who posesses the qualities of who you wouldn't see as the prototypical leading man, but since Pullman is a generally likable actor, it'll help guys watching this movie relate to the charachter. Jack is questionable of Lucy, not because he's on to what the truth is, but because he probably believe she's after his brothers money, but once he sees what kind of person she is, he doesen't feel the need to pry in her life, and is actually captivated by her. And of course, let the madnes begin. Only.....it isn't madness, that's the beauty of it, a concept like this today would be turned into the kind of akward comedy we're used to seeing with the likes of "Meet the Parents", where we have those cringe-laugh out loud scenes. No, instead it flows, and allows the dialogue of the charachters and interaction be what's funny aboout this film, not a bunch of sight gags. And the few sight gags this film has, are handelled with charm and realistic nature.

I also must point out, what I like most about Pullman's charachter here, is that he's not jealous of his rich brother, and he never was. Again, I have to believe that in the hands of your typical filmaker today, the brother would be someone who's just bitter her never got the breaks the more financially succesful one had. The only thing he's jealous that his brother has, is something his brother doesen't even really have anyway.

This is a perfect date movie for the guys to watch with their women, because it's funny, it's aware of itself, and goes about itself in an easy non-condesending way.