While You Were Sleeping
There we are then, the first Christmas film of 2014 complete. Although While You Were Sleeping is not a Christmas film in the traditional sense, it is a film set at Christmas and Christmas plays a part in the story. The story is all about Lucy, played by the beautiful Sandra Bullock, who falls in love with a man she has never really met. Lucy works at a train station ticket booth and Peter (Peter Gallagher) buys his train token from her, but has never really noticed her. However, Lucy has noticed Peter and fantasizes about him. On one such day, Peter is involved in a scuffle on the platform and falls onto the tracks, knocking himself out. Lucy comes to his rescue and saves his life by moving him out of the path of an oncoming train. The unconscious Peter ends up in hospital and this is where the fun begins.
Lucy ends up at the hospital and tries to see Peter, but it is family visiting only. However, a series of misunderstandings follow where Lucy is made out to be Peter's fiancée, this small lie soon spreads and Lucy is introduced to Peter's family and at each opportunity to clear up the misunderstanding, the deeper involved Lucy becomes. So while Peter is in a coma, Lucy is becoming one of the family. However, a love triangle ensues as Peter's brother Jack (Bill Pullman) starts to fall for Lucy and Lucy clearly starts to fall for him.
That is the basic layout of the plot and yes it does follow the feelgood, set at Christmas, romantic comedy formula and you know the outcome will be favourable and as predicted, but how you get there is important. While You Were Sleeping is a very pleasant film, ticking all the boxes. All the central characters are clearly important, but what is nice about this film is the supporting cast, who make up Peter's family, they add layers of comedic overtones that provide a distraction from the main thread, making a fuller rounder story, with plenty of, what we will class as; giggle points, periods in the film where allied to the main story, the supporting cast fill in the gaps of the story with funny lines or divert our attention away with short comedy moments.
The film was made in 1995 and Sandra Bullock is stunningly beautiful as Lucy. Her cute good looks and glinting eyes make While You Were Sleeping so watchable, even if the story is a little weak. As the first TNiFN Christmas movie of this year, it was certainly most enjoyable, the sort of film that you can lose yourself in for a couple hours quite easily. It is not pretentious or overtly demanding, it is just plain and simple with a great cast, a pleasant story and a wholesome sentiment. Certainly a film that can be popped on for some seasonal cheer at any time of year.
TNiFN Rating 76%
No comments:
Post a Comment