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While You Were Sleeping (1995)

Director: Jon Turteltaub

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Disney's fairytale romance is as cute and cuddly a bedtime story as anyone could wish for. Bullock stars as Lucy Moderatz, who sells tickets for the Chicago el-train. Lonesome Lucy has the hots for Peter (Gallagher): tall, dark, handsome - and he doesn't even know she's alive. Then, one day before Christmas, Peter collapses in a coma and Lucy pulls him from the tracks. After a mix-up at the hospital, she's introduced as Peter's fiancée and embraced to the bosom of his eccentric family (father Boyle, mother Johns, godfather Warden). Only brother Jack (Pullman) harbours any doubts - doubts Lucy is too ashamed to confirm. If Sleepless in Seattle was designer romance, While You Were Sleeping is comfortable fit: loose-knit sweaters, lumberjack shirts, blue jeans and Timberland boots. It's the difference between uptown Manhattan and blue-collar Chicago. There are no hip riffs on 'movie love' here, it's all the real McCoy. If there's a problem with the film, it's that this emphasis on authenticity is essentially just another style option, one that sits oddly with such an outrageously unlikely scenario. It's a mark of Bullock's radiant star quality that we're rooting for Lucy from the start. The movie coasts home on her charm.

Author: TCh

Time Out Film Guide

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