(no subject)
While You Were Sleeping
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle
1995
There is something about this film, something special about this film for me. It’s technically a romantic comedy, technically a chick flick, but simply leaving it at that does a disservice to the story. It’s really much more of a family comedy, in the best possible sense.
Lucy Eleanor Moderatz (Bullock, in a very winning and charming performance) - wow, what a mouthful of a name for our heroine - is lonely. She works a lonely job as a token collector for Chicago’s L. She lives alone in her little apartment building with her cat. She gives her landlord a Christmas gift because she has no one else in her life to give presents to. She harbors a secret crush on Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome (Gallagher) who comes through her turnstiles every morning, but when an accident on the track on Christmas morning leaves him in a coma, a miscommunication at the hospital has his very large, very loud family thinking she’s his fiancée, and she can’t bring herself to tell them otherwise. Things get inevitably more complicated when she falls in love with Coma Guy’s very much alive brother Jack (Pullman).
This movie gives me warm fuzzies. Very few films are capable of giving me warm fuzzies, mostly because I’m highly skeptical of overt sentimentalism. But this one… there’s something about the family dynamic in this film that manages to be incredibly sincere. You feel like you’re watching a real family, real people. And it’s not a perfect family, it’s not the Brady Bunch or any of the families from the TGIF lineup. At the same time, it’s not a dysfunctional family, either; these people truly love each other. They bluster, they argue, they talk over one another during dinner, but there’s real affection between them. It’s truly heartwarming to watch. At the end of the film, Lucy says that she fell in love not only with Jack but with his entire family. Turns out, you do too.
The romance, in my opinion secondary to the family relationships of the film (Jack does not even appear until 30 minutes into the film), is very sweet and well-done. Jack and Lucy’s courtship is chock-full of funny little moments, sighs, and romantic tension. I purposely don’t use the term “sexual tension” because, really, there is very little sexual about it. It’s much more evocative of your first high school or even middle school relationship, innocent and sweet, than about two horny grownups wanting to jump in bed together.
The film is full of unexpected humor, popping up in the most unlikely of places. The mother repeating at the dinner table, “These mashed potatoes are so creamy” because she thinks no one heard her, the doorman’s whisper of “She’s scary!”, Joe Jr.’s delivery of the line, “Nice… uh… sweater,” and the bust-out-laughing out loud paper-boy sequence. The film definitely delivers on the “comedy” portion of “romantic comedy.” It’s even funny enough that my husband, not exactly a rom-com fan, openly admits to really enjoying this film.
There’s a timeless quality about the film as well. Made in the mid-nineties, it has aged well so far. By avoiding most trends, hip hairstyles, and fad technologies, it keeps the film from being tied to a certain year, and will allow future viewers to be able to relate to the story without getting distracted by out-of-date décor.
Ultimately, While You Were Sleeping is a positive, uplifting, funny, happy movie. Moreover, it’s all these things without being sappy or inappropriate. Too often, humor is only derived from the vulgar and obscene. Too often, family film means sedate and dull. While You Were Sleeping is none of these things. It’s warm and heartfelt - I dare you not to smile while Lucy watches the family unwrap presents at Christmas - and reminiscent of too many family holidays to name. While not exactly groundbreaking in terms of subject material, artistic merit, or performances, it’s a film that’s worth remembering. A substantive romantic comedy, a film with a soul, a movie about a happy family.