Review of While You Were Sleeping (1995) by Gareth R — 18 Aug 2008

This completely amiable romantic comedy has quite an amusing premise. Lonely Lucy (Sandra Bullock) works in a toll booth and has a passing fixation with a guy she sees every day, but never speaks to (Peter Gallagher). One day he falls on train tracks, she rescues him, but he ends up in a coma. In hospital his family assumes she's his fiance, and she has to keep up the pretence, happy to finally have a family even if she's lying to them. And along the way, she falls for the unconscious man's brother. (Bill Pullman.).

Okay, so, it's funnier than it sounds. This is that kind of warm, Sunday afternoon humour that it's impossible to really have a problem with. Bullock may be typecast here, and spends about 70% of the film acting depressed, but she's still a likeable heroine. Bill Pullman slaps on so much charm as the mildly rogueish brother, you're left wishing he knew Lucy's secret so they'd have more reason to bond. When they eventually get together, it is a bit rushed. But still, the journey there is perfectly enjoyable.

Some of it's really funny, like Peter Boyle's crotchetty Dad and, once he wakes up, the shell-shocked Peter Gallagher is hilarious. The rest of it's reasonably funny, too, in that lightly frivelous way where none of it's boring, but none of it's screamingly amazing either. The film simply ignores the potential creepiness of Lucy's accidentally stalky relationship with Peter, which is probably for the best.

I do have some reservations. The quirky music is often so loud it's difficult to hear what everybody's saying, and the narration at the start and the end - particularly when Lucy poignantly says "While you were sleeping", which only has any relevance because we know it's the title of the film - is a little heavy-handed and unnecessary.

Still, this is decent (if dispensible) fodder, which ought to cheer anyone up, although it does firmly suggest that people living by themselves have completely the wrong idea and need fixing.