Sleep Murder

I caught this one late last night, while i was channel surfing. I missed the first 20 minutes or so, but i was intrigued. At first I thought it was just a bad made for TV movie, with Jason Priestley, but as it progressed and I got more into and I realized this was actually a pretty quality film, well acted, well written, the cinematography was nice as well. I was pleasantly surprised, I also noticed a few of the actors from Trailer Park Boys: Johns Dunsworth, Corey Bowels and Jason Priestley's boss who portrayed both a judge and prosecutor on Trailer Park Boys, so I am assuming some of this was filmed in Nova Scotia. Overall quality movie, i recommend it, and i would like to see more work from the writer David Fraser.

Without watching this movie, I can tell it was not properly done right. It is outrageous how this TRUE stories has been turned into a film that has such disrespect to the victims in this murder case; my grandmother & uncle. If only you knew what damage this trauma has caused to all descendants of these victims. David Fraser, you did not take writing this film "very seriously" .. you want to make a great film, use the truth next time. Include the victims actual story. Take a look into our lives, the family who have suffered trauma from this horrible murder case.

Nothing too great or interesting here. Just a very typical made for TV production, with average actors, an average look and an average story to tell. I think I would had liked watching this all better had it just been a "Law & Order" episode, or something along those lines.

Thing with this movie is that it just isn't a very compelling one. Quite frankly I don't see why we should care about this case or the person that is being prosecuted for it. The person is just a mumbling and boring looking person. Who should care if he gets find guilty or not. He does nothing in this movie to make us as a viewer want him to stay out of jail, so he can be with his wife and new born child. All he does is moaning about how guilty he is and feels. It also really doesn't help that Natar Ungalaaq just isn't the greatest actor of the movie. Same really goes for all of the Inuit characters unfortunately.

No, it's just not the most involving movie out there. And basically the reason for them to say at the beginning that this movie got based on true events is because none of the viewers would had otherwise really believed the far fetched story and defense strategy by the lawyer.

You also do have to give the movie some credit though. It's nice to see a movie being set in the Inuit community and it seems like the movie got actually shot at location for some part. The movie tries to be respectful toward the community but they seem to have forgotten that in order to succeed to create some likability and affection toward the Inuit people you really need to show some more of the culture and the actual people living there. The movie just doesn't really go deep enough with this and all we have basically now is the Jason Priestley character sitting down in his apartment and telling how he suddenly likes the Inuit people. He might had just as well sat down in a New York subway and afterward would had said; Hey, I kind of like these people and respect them. It would had made just as much sense really. It's just some very simple and lazy writing and story-telling.

It's also a real shame that they felt the need to throw in a love story as well. The sex scene within this movie literally comes out of nowhere and it is no way clear to me at which point these two characters started to fall in love with each other.

I must admit though that Jason Priestley did a pretty decent job with his role. He of course still suffers from his pretty boy "Beverly Hills, 90210" image but he surprisingly is believable as a defense attorney in this movie.

Not really a movie good or interesting enough to consider it worth watching or searching out but when you by chance happen to catch it sometime on TV you won't feel too displeased watching it. It's all not that bad.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Thank you, I took the writing of this film very seriously and appreciate your compliment. During the shoot, in Iqaluit, I had the pleasure of meeting the Inuit cast, many of whom doubled up on technical support and crew work. Great, resourceful, friendly people. Though I didn't know it at the time, it turns out that Lucien is actually a highly respected authority on Inuit law - just as he appears to be in the film!

Natar paid me a funny, sideways compliment. He smiled after he told me, so I can never be sure if he was kidding me, but he said that when he read the script he didn't think I was white, he thought I was Dene!