Sleepless in Seattle; romantic comedy, USA, 1993; D: Nora Ephron, S: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, Rosie O'Donnell, Gaby Hoffmann, Rob Reiner, David Hyde Pierce, Rita Wilson
Architect Sam's wife dies, so he is left alone with his little son Jonah. But Jonah calls for him a local radio station in Seattle and tells the psychologist that his dad is searching for a new mother, so a lot of women start calling to win a date with him. Among the is the journalist Annie who got engaged rather hasty, but she lives in New York, on the other side of the US - their distance is so big that it's day in one state while it's already night in the other. Jonah goes to New York to meet Annie. His father follows him and finally meets her, falling in love with her.
This neat and sweet romantic comedy with a few sparkling gags reunited Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan for the second time on the big screens - and offered a much better excuse than their weak first film "Joe Versus the Volcano" - becoming a huge commercial success and often getting mentioned as the best Hanks-Ryan film. "Sleepless in Seattle" is one of those films where kitsch and picture book concept were skillfully avoided thanks to the quality writing and sympathetic, slightly dreamy direction by Nora Ephron, turning into one of the few films where romance is slowly built on the separation and absence of the two people in love who are separated by a huge distance. Ironically, the best part of the film isn't even in the film itself - it's the beautiful poster, where Hanks and Ryan are looking at each other and sensing each other's presence, but it's day time at his place and night time at her, enhancing their long distance from each other. The events that pass during the course of the film are very poignant, whereas even though the story is rather overstretched one simply has to praise the emotional tone and the neat junction between the movie styles of the 50s and 90s.
Grade:++
This neat and sweet romantic comedy with a few sparkling gags reunited Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan for the second time on the big screens - and offered a much better excuse than their weak first film "Joe Versus the Volcano" - becoming a huge commercial success and often getting mentioned as the best Hanks-Ryan film. "Sleepless in Seattle" is one of those films where kitsch and picture book concept were skillfully avoided thanks to the quality writing and sympathetic, slightly dreamy direction by Nora Ephron, turning into one of the few films where romance is slowly built on the separation and absence of the two people in love who are separated by a huge distance. Ironically, the best part of the film isn't even in the film itself - it's the beautiful poster, where Hanks and Ryan are looking at each other and sensing each other's presence, but it's day time at his place and night time at her, enhancing their long distance from each other. The events that pass during the course of the film are very poignant, whereas even though the story is rather overstretched one simply has to praise the emotional tone and the neat junction between the movie styles of the 50s and 90s.
Grade:++
2 comments:
Have you heard of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor who wrote the current bestseller "My Stroke of Insight"? Taylor was a Harvard trained brain scientist who suffered a massive stroke. I don't think we'll ever hear a story like this - Taylor understands how the brain functions and she was able to observe her mind deteriorating. She writes about the euphoric nirvana and a sense of complete peace and well-being she discovered in her stroke and she talks about this in her incredible (don't miss it) talk on TED.com. In the book, Taylor explains how to 'step to the right of their left brain' to uncover a deep internal peace. Meg Ryan was in the audience when Dr. Taylor gave her speech at TED... hey, maybe she'll do the movie and we'll all be able to "have what she's having" to reprise that line from When Harry Met Sally : ) Sign me up!
Well...This is a little bit off topic :D, but it's an interesting story. I guess we should inform ourselves about her work. And I wouldn't mind if Ryan would make a movie about it.
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