Sleepwalk with Me

Matt Pandamiglio (Mike Birbiglia) is a loser struggling comedian who's actually more of a comedy club bartender. His girlfriend Abby (Lauren Ambrose) is too good for him. Abby pressures him to marry her, and he starts walking in his sleep under the stress.

Mike Birbiglia's semi-autobiographical one-man show is turned into a movie. It has the air of real life. However I just couldn't shake the question that probably everybody asked while watching this movie. "Why did she stay with this loser?" Mike probably played up his loserness too much at the beginning. His acting at the start had no energy at all. It just made it hard to understand why Abby would ever stay with him. There is an imaginative explanation based on real life. But it still isn't quite satisfying.

I saw this movie because I heard about it from Joss Whedon's "boycott." Before I sat down to watch it I glanced at the IMDb rate of 6.7, so I figured take it in on my day off while at home on netflix with nothing else to do. It turned out I loved it. The film follows Matt as he attempts to break into stand up comedy and juggle a relationship with his girlfriend of 8 years, as well as cope with some extreme bouts of sleepwalking. Now this is listed as a comedy, but it's not like comedies that other comedians put out, like Will Ferrell, and I wonder if that's part of the reason for the low ranking. Really the story is a serious one but told in a lighthearted but honest way.

If there were some downsides they would be first that, visually it's nothing special, it looks good but not great. Second, is not so much a downside for me as it would be for what I assume it was for some of the people who gave it negative reviews, (indeed I did see people cite this very reason in their reviews) and that is the ending. The film follows the typical film plot structure up to a point and then it strays from what most people would see as typical. I won't spoil anything but I will say this, I was surprised but then again it makes you think. And that is where it really knocked it out of the park for me. I was a little miffed at first but, the film then leaves you with a thought, which made me re-think the movie and it all came together.

I don't think the average movie goer wants to have a revelation at the end of a movie unless that revelation was "It was all a dream(or was it?)" or "He was dead the whole time."

All in all, the movie is an honest, lighthearted look at an event from Mike Birbiglia's life. A movie that will make you laugh at least a little bit, and you might even take something away from it. If you JUST want to laugh, well go watch the latest Will Ferrell movie.

A funny little movie about a man who suffers from a sleepwalk disorder. The story tells his struggle to hold love and career life together while one turns to be a disaster and another one successful.

Well the story was a bit uncatchy in opening few minutes because the man of the movie, Matt Pandamiglio, tells his earlier life story while recording it into a camera which looks like some documentary. That makes totally unaware of the situation of the tale intended to but later it turned out to be a nice one. The character Matt, sometimes turns to be a nerd and sometimes make us feel fond on him for his innocence. I was little confused for the randomness of his character. Realised that was the motive created by the writer to make the viewers to go gaga over the destination of the tale.

In the movie I liked many individual scenes like Matt jumping out of the window, especially all the sleepwalk scenes. It was a simple story, it was not intended to hurt anybody emotionally from the romantic side of the tale but the line the Matt says at the end of the movie makes really sweet-fully hurt. That one line makes the movie worth giving another rating star or point.

I never knew before this director-come-actor, Mike Birbiglia. This movie was loosely based on his own life story, he did a good job as his first directional venture as well first major role in a movie. Hope he to become next Mark Duplass. The movie should reach to every movie buff around the world because it was one of a fine independent comedy. You will like it if you ever liked 'Safety not Guaranteed' or 'Ruby Sparks', recommended to watch once.

Cute little comedy starring two people I really enjoy, Mike Birbiglia and Lauren Ambrose, who should have had a much bigger film career than she's had thus far. Having said that, this is his show which he also directed and wrote. The small tale of a struggling comic and his relationship with his long-term girlfriend. It's sweet, it's ironically humorous and it has some things to say about relationships. It's a tiny thing and not all of it works, but I liked it.

Not hilarious, but an interesting story that's partially based on real life events. I've enjoyed Birbiglia's stand up so I eased into this effortlessly. Not sure if non fans will enjoy it but I think it's worth a shot.