Nuits blanches à Seattle

I will not lie to you, I will admit right from the off that I am biased. I love this movie.

Plot In A Paragraph: Eighteen months after losing his wife, Sam (Tom Hanks) is still grieving and can't sleep. His eight year old son Jonah (Ross Malinger) misses his mother, but he wants his father to get a new wife despite Sam having not even contemplated dating again. On Christmas Eve, Jonah calls a national radio talk show and ask for a "new wife" for his Dad. Sam ends up pouring his heart out about his magical and perfect marriage to his late wife, and how much he still misses her. Among the many women who hear Sam's story and fall in love with him solely because of it is Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) a Baltimore-based newspaper writer. Who is drawn to Jim based on his story, despite already being engaged to Walter (Bill Pullman)

1993 was a massive year for Tom Hanks with both this movie and "Philadelphia" being huge hits. Both are very different, but are equally brilliant. As is Hanks. He is heartbreakingly excellent as the widower. Amazingly the role of Annie was originally offered to Julia Roberts, who turned it down. Kim Basinger also turned it down because she thought the premise was ridiculous (Good move Kim!!) After Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jodie Foster all declined as well, Meg Ryan landed the role. I surprised this role was not wrote with Ryan in mind as this type of role was her bread and butter back then. She was perfect for this type of role.

Rosie O Donnell is solid support to Ryan as is Bill Pullman, and Ross Malinger manages to avoid all the cliché's of most chicks actors!

Well directed, with a sharp and witty script. I will add I also liked the fact that they didn't feel the need to make the Bill Pullman character a jerk (as is usual the case with his type of role in romantic comedies)

One of my favourite Tom Hanks movies, one of my favourite Meg Ryan movies and one of my favourite romantic comedies. I don't own many romantic comedies. But this one is in my collection.

Sleepless In Seattle is truly a film for the Nineties. It's a film that is in part based on the high tech culture that the Nineties spawned with computers and nationwide talk radio. How could have you done a film like this in another time?

Well romance is certainly eternal and if the way humans connect is different now, the point is they still connect. And this film takes up the proposition that some folks are fated to be mated.

If I had ever done this thing for either of my parents back in the day or something similar I shudder to think of the consequences. But when young Ross Malinger calls a radio psychologist played in voice only by Caroline Aaron about his father it sets off an entire chain of events that make you believe in fate.

Tom Hanks is the recently widowed father of Malinger they've just finished burying his wife Carey Lowell and he thinks a change of scenery is in order to assuage his grief. Hanks and Malinger move to Seattle and its from their new home in Seattle that young Master Malinger makes his fateful call. Hanks gets on the phone as well and his story touches female hearts across America and he's known by the moniker of Sleepless In Seattle.

One of those touched hearts is Meg Ryan's who is ready to marry Bill Pullman who is playing what used to be called the Ralph Bellamy role. Good old reliable steady Bill, but Meg is hearing a different calling and taking her cues from that Leo McCarey classic, An Affair To Remember she goes in a nationwide hunt for Hanks.

More cynical folks than myself would say that Ryan was stalking Hanks and there are laws against it. But if one is fated to be mated than those laws just don't apply.

Hanks and Ryan strike just the right note as the fated couple and Hanks has some great scenes with young Malenger. Rosie O'Donnell has a nice bit in this as well as Ryan's equally romantic minded friend who kind of quarterbacks Ryan's moves.

Sleepless In Seattle got two Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Song. Nora Ephron directed her own screenplay and the result is a magic romantic film like they used to do even in the high tech Nineties.

A story about a man who wife passed away and he is lonely so his child takes over his Dad's life and tries to hook up dear old dad through the personals,, meanwhile on the other side of the country , a young woman listens to a radio show , and their is a caller, called Sleepless in Seattle,, she is drawn to him , so she figures out where he lives,, hops on a plane and tracks him down,, somehow she misses him at the Airport and the meeting is put off for now,, Rosie O' Donnell isn't bad in this,, Bill Pullman is in this,, and Meg Ryan plays opposite Tom Hanks,, not a bad movie,, there are a few shortcomings,, but they can be easily overlooked if you're looking for a feel good story with a decent ending,,,

I won't lie to you-this movie is a CHICK FLICK! Though I never saw it with a guy, it is definitely a chick flick. That said, it's a high-end chick flick, which probably a few guys might enjoy, unless they happen to be the exploding helicopter type^^; This movie feels more like a modern day adaptation of the classic romance "An Affair To Remember," and it keeps referencing it too (In fact, the Cary Grant classic is very integral to the plot). Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan have great chemistry together, and they both do what they're good at-Tom Hanks portraying the Everyman, and Meg Ryan being cute and innocent. I have to disagree with an earlier comment that this film is unfair to guys-the way the characters are portrayed, I'd have to say that in the reverse situation, I'd still feel the same way. Meg Ryan does not have the "evil woman" syndrome that popped up in later 90's chick flicks (The most notorious of which was "My Best Friend's Wedding"). She is very believable and actually does care about the feelings of her fiance. What I particularly liked is that the fiance was not portrayed as someone who Meg would do well to leave. Most movies fall into this trap-Someone is about to marry someone who is horrible and find that someone else is better, the viewer supposedly not feeling bad because the fiance was a jerk anyway. Tom Hanks really shines here as someone who has lost the most important person in his life and is trying to rebuild again. He always has a knack for easily slipping into the roles he's given and making them really convincing. He does not fail here-you feel for him especially during the sequences where he starts remembering his late wife. The movie's plot starts to stretch plausibility at the end, but not to the point where it destroys the entire film. The ending scene in particular is handled very carefully. You could have had a big, romantic, tear-jerking moment. Instead, the movie takes a more simplistic approach, and it succeeds-it feels much more natural than the alternative. Overall, if you're in for a feel good romance, you should see this. If you happen to be female, this is DEFINITELY worth watching.

The movies are full of alternate universes and maybes that make them a great escape. Sleepless In Seattle is a great romantic comedy. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan star in a movie where they are hardly onscreen together and yet we feel both of their characters infatuation. It's an amazing job that director Nora Ephron does in making us care about the relationship between these two characters when their not hardly together onscreen. The movie also has great performances, from the leads and from supporting players Rosie O'Donnell and Rob Reiner, as well as a very goofy but sweet turn from Bill Pullman. This movie will make you feel good.