genshman

This is a thriller like you haven't seen before... The basic idea is a man who realizes he is sleepwalking, and who fixes a camera to his shoulder to find out what he's doing at night, and where his wife and children have gone. Not before very long, dead bodies are found, and the sleepwalker is on the run. Along the way, there are a lot of twists and turns, and a finale you'll never guess! I bet they're gonna remake this film in the US within the next five years, but I think there is little to improve. Don't walk out or rewind or unload the disc before you've seen the very end!

I was expecting one of those sweet family pictures, Disney style. But from the first scene, this one was different. You're getting involved with a family (parents with two daughters) who just lost their two-year-old son. Each of them finds his or her own way to deal with this great loss. Mother is getting pregnant again, and this time around, her life and the life of the unborn child are in danger.

This engaging story is told in a simple way, no manipulations, just pure life. Jim Sheridan admitted that the film is built around a lot of personal experiences of his own and his family - maybe that's way this film is so truthful and touching. Besides, the actors are fantastic, especially the true life sisters who play the family's daughters in the film.

I've seen quite a lot of movies so far, and so it does not happen very often that a movie really "moves" me emotionally. This one did.

Oh Lord, this was really bad! You think with all those marvellous actresses and actors and this brilliant story, nothing can go wrong, but - they marred it completely.

Starting with hilarious miscasting (Catherine Deneuve is far too old and not sensuous enough), over boring, wooden dialogue to incompetent camera work - there is one scene which has two of the leading characters talking to another, and you don't even get to see the face of one of them!

Shifting the story into the present may be an interesting idea, but the script does not take the simplest care in adapting to this.

See another version of this, the Stephen-Frears-film if you can. But do miss this one!