WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
A film review by Jeffrey Graebner
Copyright 1995 Jeffrey Graebner
The romantic comedy is a mainstay of popular entertainment, existing in theater and literature that predated the movies. As other genres have come in and out of favor in Hollywood, filmmakers have continued to regularly produce new romantic comedies. While the characters and situations change, the basic form has remained remarkably consistent.
The genre's best entries are those that follow believable characters through interesting situations leading to romance. The best romantic comedies strike a delicate balance between complicated situations that border on fantasy and believable characters that seem like real people. The specifics of the situations portrayed may seem unlikely, but it is important that the audience be able to relate to the characters. We need to believe that these could be real people that we know--or even that they are much like ourselves.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING is a very strong and smart romantic comedy. It starts from an outlandish premise, but it features central characters with such realistic behavior and emotions that we are able to completely accept everything that happens. The result is a very appealing film with some surprising depth of emotion.
Sandra Bullock stars as Lucy Moderatz, a lonely tollbooth attendant for the Chicago Transit Authority. She secretly pines for Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher), a handsome stranger who wordlessly passes by her booth every day on his way to work. Since Lucy has no family, her boss (Jason Bernard) convinces her to work on Christmas Day. On that day, she sees Peter mugged and pushed onto the train tracks. She quickly acts to pull him from the tracks, but he ends up in a coma. At the hospital, a series of misunderstandings results in Peter's family believing that she is actually his fiance. Lucy quickly is accepted as a part of the family and eventually she finds herself falling for Peter's brother Jack (Bill Pullman).
The biggest strength of the screenplay by first-time writers Daniel G. Sullivan and Fredric Lebow is its very clear understanding of the emotions that go with loneliness. Lucy is portrayed as a good-hearted but shy individual who is longing for people to share her life. She is an only child who's mother had passed away when she was young. For many years her father had been her only family and he too had recently passed away. This movie is as much about Lucy's strong attraction to the love and support provided by Peter's close-knit family as it is about the unusual romantic triangle.
Sullivan and Lebow show a great deal of perceptiveness about the support system that a close family can provide. Lucy's loneliness clearly goes beyond a simple need for companionship. Like most people, she has the everyday need for the support that comes from being a part of a group. This is most strongly reflected in the film's best scene, a very simple moment where Lucy has joined Peter's family around the dinner table. The family is engaging in familiar chatter and Lucy's facial expression very clearly shows how special this everyday event seems to her.
The film's portrayal of this kind of loneliness really struck a chord with me. I come from a very close-knit family. While they are still alive and I have stayed in contact with them as much as possible, in the last couple years we have spread to different parts of the country. I miss the constant support of having my family nearby and was able to easily relate to Lucy's feelings of isolation. For me, some of the most satisfying movies are the ones where a character experiences strong feelings that match ones I have had. This connection made the film really work for me.
A great deal the film's success can be attributed to the fortunate casting of Sandra Bullock as Lucy. Bullock is an actor who generates an instant, strong sense of likability. She is able to convey a mix of strength and vulnerability that is absolutely perfect for Lucy. She comes off like a completely real person without ever seeming like an actor playing a role. Bullock made a strong impression with terrific supporting roles in SPEED, DEMOLITION MAN, and WRESTLING ERNEST HEMINGWAY, but she shows here that she can easily carry a film. This movie should make her into a major star.
Wisely, Peter's family is kept relatively small and is never portrayed as excessively quirky. The film could have easily become bogged-down if the family had consisted of too many colorful characters. Instead, they seem like a normal family. Peter Boyle is terrific as the family patriarch (affectionately referred to as "Ox" in the film) with Glynis Johns and Micole Mercurio also good as the grandmother and mother. The film doesn't spend an excessive amount of time developing the family members (it wisely concentrates most of the attention on Lucy), but it gives them all just enough time to seem like real people.
Of course, the film's unusual romantic triangle is also central to the story. It too is played well. All my life, I have had a constant struggle to overcome a powerful shyness that has made it extremely difficult to get to know people, particularly impeding romantic relationships. Lucy's fantasy crush on Peter rung very familiar to me. Sullivan and Lebow treat her crush as very natural and the slow replacement of her fantasy image of him with his real personality is handled well.
The relationship with Jack is also portrayed well. Bullock and Pullman have plenty of chemistry and it seems that they genuinely like one another. It is particularly refreshing that the film never overcomplicates their relationship by forcing any long sequences of animosity between them. Instead, the relationship is allowed to build in a low-key manner keeping the main source of conflict Lucy's claim that she is Peter's fiance (and Jack's cautious suspicion).
It would have been very easy for the film to be derailed by its own premise. After all, a deception is the basis of the story. The reasons given for Lucy maintaining the deception are convincing. We are able to believe that both Lucy >and< the family are able to benefit by the continuation of the deception.
One of the wisest moves was the introduction of Saul (Jack Warden), a family friend who quickly finds out the truth. His character provides Lucy with a confidant who knows the family and understands why they need to believe that she is Peter's fiance. I suppose that the film does stretch credibility a bit to establish these reasons, but it never seems to go too far.
When Peter eventually wakes up, the film takes some interesting directions with his character as well. Once again, some stretches of credibility are needed to keep the film from ending right there, but it is so deftly played that it remains convincing. His reactions to the situation are not nearly as predictable as they could have been.
As good as the film is, it has a few weak points. It includes a few supporting characters that are not as effective as they should be. For some reason, Sullivan and Lebow selected to have several scenes where Lucy confides in her boss about the situation. It is a bit hard to buy such an employee/boss relationship (particularly in an unskilled profession). His character doesn't seem to serve any purpose that couldn't have been fulfilled by Saul.
Another unnecessary character is Joe Jr. (Michael Rispoli), Lucy's slovenly neighbor. Rispoli brings a surprising amount of charm to a stereotyped character, but he didn't entirely seem to fit with the rest of the film. The writers also gave Peter a real girlfriend (Ally Walker) who is played much too far over-the-top. A final "twist" involving her character is neither surprising or particularly interesting.
It is a bit difficult to accurately convey the tone of the film in writing. Some of my comments might make the film seem a bit depressing, but that really isn't the case. The film contains a great deal of humor and is generally played with a light and breezy tone. The general subject matter and some of the more serious themes does give the film a bit of a dark side, but it isn't overwhelmed by it. The movie is more of a drama then some people might be expecting (I have seen some reviews where the reviewer was obviously expecting a screwball comedy), but it certainly isn't overly downbeat.
Director Jon Turteltaub previously made COOL RUNNINGS into a much better film than the script should have allowed and he does a terrific job with this much stronger material. The pacing is good and he finds just the right mix between comedy and drama. Even the few sequences of physical comedy are staged well.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING is a film that struck some personal chords with me and my response is certainly affected by that. Still, I suspect that most people will find it to be a terrific romantic comedy that manages to touch on some interesting themes and some deep emotions. I recommend it very highly.
-- Jeffrey P. Graebner Columbus, Ohio
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