Chasing Sleep

Too bad that Jeff Daniels, an excellent actor, can't get better parts. He showed so much promise as Shirley MacLaine's son-in-law in "Terms of Endearment." Come on, Hollywood. You can do better than this for Mr. Daniels.

Daniels is a college professor here who finds that his wife, a music teacher, is missing. He alternately hallucinates due to a lack of sleep. He even dreams that his wife has been found dead. Maybe, this is wishful thinking on his part.

We discover that the Mrs. has been having an affair with a gym teacher in her school and is pregnant. To add to the mayhem, a student, named Sadie Crumb, comes over to find out why the college professor hasn't been showing up to class. When Daniels doesn't show up for 2 days, his response to the college secretary, calling to tell him that the dean wants to see him, is memorable.

What should the police believe when they find Sadie's bloody clothing on the scene? Incidentally, she had a nosebleed while at the professor's house.

Daniels spends most of the time in this movie in the toilet wiping away blood and possible body parts. This is mainly where the script should have placed as well.

Chasing Sleep is one of the best movies I've seen lately. Its creepy, disturbing atmosphere is as good as anything David Lynch has ever done. The lighting and camerawork are beyond incredible. Very slow, well-paced, gentle on the eyes, and still disturbing and powerful. The acting is subtle and very convincing. I wish Jeff Daniels would get more roles like this one. He's a great actor. The other actors in this movie are good, too. The script is fascinating and definitely makes you think, without using any tired plot devices and clichés.

One thing that I particularly liked about the movie is that it never gets boring, not even for a second. This is quite rare, especially in a movie that is so slow.

10/10

I saw this movie on cable the other night and I have to say that I really just don't get it. It was slow it was boring and I really really hate it when you can't tell if what you are watching is really happening for if the character is hallucinating!!! Can someone please tell me if the wife is really alive or did she die!!!!

Wouldn't this be a better world if today's talented thriller-makers knew how to end their films as well as they know how to start them and keep them going? Most of the time you'll be thinking "where has this movie been hiding all these years?", but at the end you'll almost be sorry that you invested the time to watch it in the first place. There is an undeniable mastery in the way Walker directs: first he grounds the film in reality, then he allows it to go on bizarre trips into the surreal, and all the time he moves the camera gracefully through the limited sets. Then comes the "say what?", non-explanatory ending, and it all goes to pieces. (**1/2)

This is a great example of a movie that doesn't conform to Hollywood conventions. It is essentially about a man who awakes to realise his wife hasn't come home from work the day before, and what happens to him during the day while he waits for the police. The movie never leaves the man's house, apart from a very short scene in a hospital, and contains no soundtrack. By doing this it creates more tension than if it had a typical Hollywood soundtrack, made up of the usual scary music and screeching sounds. Also as the house begins to fall apart, it becomes more and more claustrophobic. The fact that the storyline is fluid and ambiguous could infuriate or bore some people, however it is chilling without resulting to blood or gore, and never even gives any real answers. Though nowhere near as good, it resembles a David Lynch movie, in that it challenges conventions of plot, and remains ambiguous throughout. Don't watch for any out and out shocks, but it is a movie that will grow on you, and one that you'll still be thinking about later.