WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING (Hollywood Pictures 1995) Buena Vista Home Video

John Turteltoub’s While You Were Sleeping (1995) is a charmingly original holiday offering; a whimsical romantic fairytale that casts Sandra Bullock in the Cinderella role as Lucy Eleanor Moderatz – a toll booth operator for Chicago’s subway transit. Certain that she will never fall in love, Lucy’s heart is drawn to one particular subway patron who frequents her terminal; hunky businessman, Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher).


Socially, Lucy and Peter are complete opposites and worlds apart. He’s the Harry Rosen set and she buys her jeans at Wal-Mart. Then, the unthinkable happens. Peter is the target of a botched robbery while waiting for the next train. He falls unconscious onto the tracks and Lucy rescues him before the next tram arrives. Lucy is a hero…well…sort of.

But then comes a colossal flub; one of the nurses mistakes Lucy for Peter’s fiancée, a rouse Lucy is forced to perpetuate when Peter awakens with amnesia to his loving, but dotty family; mom Midge (Micole Mercurio); dad, Ox (Peter Boyle); grandma, Elsie (Glynis Johns) and brother, Jack (Bill Pullman).

Peter’s godfather, Saul (Jack Warden) learns the truth about Lucy first, but he keeps it under wraps, realizing that through Lucy, the family has come together in an extraordinary way to celebrate the holidays. Jack, however, suspects something is terribly wrong. His suspicions grow even more critical after the randy son of Lucy’s landlord, Joe Fusco Jr. (the comically inspired, Michael Rispoli) suggests to Jack that he and Lucy are an item.

Armed with this latest revelation, Jack attempts to discredit Lucy in front of the family with twenty questions about her relationship with his brother. Instead, he slowly finds himself warming up to Lucy’s sad-eyed charm.

This is a delightful romantic comedy – one with genuine heart - just the sort of feel good vibe essential to sustain its feather-weight and improbable narrative. There is genuine chemistry between Bullock and Pullman who, I must confess I never thought much of as leading man material before. But together in this film they make an engaging romantic pair.

Jack Warden delivers a poignant and sustained performance as the one man who has both the family and Lucy’s best interests at heart. Turteltoub's direction is swift and solid. He affords each scene just enough time to warm our hearts without dragging the narrative under a flurry of gushy introspection or over the top schmaltz.

Buena Vista Home Video’s DVD is about what one would expect from a company that seems all too readily dismissive of its catalogue titles: widescreen with average balanced colors and more than a slight hint of edge enhancement throughout. The image is often gritty and unrefined - easily looking ten years older than it actually is. Fine details are generally lost during darker scenes. Compression artefacts are often noticeable in background information. The audio is stereo surround and just adequate for this primarily dialogue driven movie. Predictably, there are NO extras.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

4

VIDEO

2.5

EXTRAS

0

Deserves to be on Blu-Ray?

YES!