While You Were Sleeping

I know, I know...You saw the name Bill Pullman and wanted to shove this movie a side too. In this movie though, he is absolutely a sweetheart. This wonderful fairytale really got me. Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman and his entire kooky family sucked me right in. This movie is such a chick flick, but it is really funny too. (Joe Fusco Jr.!!!) See it! I think you'll love it. I did.

This was the picture which proved things could be all about Sandra Bullock. "Speed" - one year earlier - showed this. This picture proved it. A lot of people nowadays make fun of a typical Bullock picture and speak of her as negligible in this day and age. They probably forget or were never aware that she was hailed as America's new sweetheart back in '95 and it was no idle chatter. There are very few actresses who can carry a picture on their own slight shoulders - I mean, really make it a success. Sure, Bill Pullman helped, but this really was Sandra all the way, in a sappy, soapy, cliché-ridden slight story of sudden romance usually very hard to buy into. But because Sandra is there on the screen throughout nearly every frame, it all works out, and you're rooting for her happiness in the final few minutes even knowing very well what is about to happen. It's like you've seen it all before, but Sandra makes you want to see it again. We are all very fortunate, those of us who have seen this story, that it was Sandra in the central role and not someone like (shudder) Demi Moore. And if a guy is really fortunate, he may meet someone like Sandra in real life.

While You Were Sleeping is almost flawless. The storyline is funny but at the same time dramatic. Sandra Bullock plays Lucy, a lonely el worker with no family at all. She sees this guy get mugged and pushed on the train tracks and she jumps on and saves his life. She follows him to the hospital, where it is mistaken that she is the man's fiance. She gets thrust into the family who accepts her with open arms. However, problems arise when she starts to fall in love with the brother of her "fiance". This movie is perfectly cast with Brilliant performances by Bullock and Bill Pullman who plays the brother. The have great chemistry and just subtly looks and gestures towards each other during the whole movie add towards the sexual tension between them. I have not met anyone who doesnt like this movie and it has become one of my favorites. You can watch it a million times and never get tired of it. ****

Rom-coms are not my bag; 99% are utter crap. 'While You Were Sleeping' is one of, maybe, three I've ever re-watched. It's criminally low-rated here.

8 great things about While You Were Sleeping:

1. If you watch it again, and pay attention, you'll pick up something new. Like the whomping thud of a fall by the ice skater at the end of the Chicago winter montage opening credits.

On (at least) my fourth watch, I finally realized *why* Lucy has such a thing for Peter. It's not because he's handsome, or his clothes scream money: It's crush at first sight because he looks like her father, down to the bushy black eyebrows.

2. The soundtrack is sneaky-good, full of bluesy/old school R&B. Natalie Cole, Koko Taylor, Ella Fitzgerald, Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials. Yes, it closes with a cheesy duet-but it's Daryl Hall and Dusty Springfield herself. Sign me up!

3. There are scads of memorable lines and one-liners. Everyone who enjoys this movie has a favorite. I'm partial to Jack and Peter's 'you suck' exchange in the hospital chapel.

4. Remember when lots of movies had real-looking people with real-looking houses, before the days when even a NYC teacher has to be drop-dead gorgeous with a $2mil loft? Only the rich lawyer in WYWS has a rich pad, and that's cool.

5. The leading lady has no vanity. She never wears spike heels or shows cleavage. Lucy (Sandra Bullock) dresses like lots of women you know: jeans and baggy sweaters, boots for icy sidewalks. As Peter tells his out-going girlfriend, "Lucy is *not* a bimbo."

Her hair is a mess nine scenes out of ten, and Bullock is so warm and genuine you love her for it.

She's also not taking the world by storm. Lucy is funny, adorable, sentimental...and the hot dog vendor she sees every day never remembers her.

6. Jack (Bill Pullman) is a woodworker! Let's just say I've known loads of craftsmen and lawyers in my professional life...and one creates things from nothing while the other largely takes things apart.

Most rom-coms have 'insert hot guy here' interchangeable casting, but Pullman is perfect here: self-effacing, funny, a little scruffy, with just the right amount of gravel in his voice. He's charming, a bit snarky-and he single-handedly redeems the film's cheesiest scene by facing the camera with sudden tears in his eyes.

7. You can relate to the Callaghans. If you've ever been shushed in church. If non-sequiturs and talking-over fly at the dinner table. Argentinian beef and nazis, tall actors and mashed potatoes. If there's at least one rogue grandparent or mensch friend and nobody's perfect but everyone laughs a lot. You don't have to actually be Irish. Though it helps.

8. The supporting cast is pretty flawless all-around. Even the trope roles are lively. Jack Warden, Glynis Johns, Peter Boyle, Ally Walker and Peter Gallagher as a largely comatose, narcissistic, wide-eyed doofus of a one-balled squirrel-saver.

In the end, WYWS is more funny than trite, a low-gloss, feel-good film with a saving grace of quirk.

While You Were Sleeping has aged surprisingly well. I remember watching this for the first time when I was about 10yrs, shortly after it came out, and I cringed so much and could barely get through it. Same thing when I watched it about 12yrs later. My husband had never seen it, and I felt we should definitely watch it together. I'm not a huge romantic comedy person, simply because of their annoyingly contrived nature, but this is one of those rare romantic comedies that has a good(not great script), with acting, setting, mood, music, and good direction, that truly elevates it's script to something great. Out of all of the 1990's romantic comedies, this one has probably aged the best, it does not feel dated in the least, and feels downright contemporary in many regards.

The premise itself is, of course, the source of the majority of the comedy and awkward situations, but were it not for the fantastic chemistry between Pullman and Bullock, and the chemistry between Bullock and he supposed fiance's family, this movie would fall harder than a lead brick. Bullock has fantastic comic timing here, and the supporting casts is even better.

If you are already predisposed to hate romantic comedies, you'll hate this anyway, but for awkward comedic moments and chemistry by the leads, this movie blows films such as "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" out of the water, and virtually every other romantic comedy post-90's. It has such likeable characters, great execution, and, a still, good premise, even 24yrs later. I would watch this 100 times times over most modern romantic comedies, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. My husband squirmed through the whole movie, and would not have gotten more than 15 minutes into it, were it not for me making him un-pause the movie during the most cringy awkward parts. That's not a negative, I see it as one of the movie's strengths, and again, even when the film isn't cringy, it has some wonderful romantic moments, and beautiful chemistry between Bullock and the family. Overall, it is a solid effort, and a definite 1990's classic Rom Com.

God Bless ~Amy