Sleepwalking (2008)

WHile the movie itself is depressing, the setting certainly looks like an abandoned wasteland, the movie was good.

The movie was great in fact.

All characters were believable and their performances were outstanding.

Charlize blows me away all the time and after seeing this, I am just amazed at how great she is as a performer.

All the cast was good - Woody is such a versatile performer. Good, bad, crazy, brave - this guy has great range.

Saskatchewan where I had lived very briefly is as depressing as it is shown here.

WHomever did chose the locations, certainly knew how to make Saskatchewan look even worse than it is.

With great camera work, great performances - it's just a solid film.

Not my favorite. Never will be,but just good in it's own ways.

Charlize has such a beautiful face, even when she has swollen eyes, she still looks amazing.

Fmovies: Did you ever sit through a movie and find yourself hoping the entire time that it would get better? It isn't good, and hasn't been good yet, but there's some good acting and a foundation for a story and you just really, really want it to be good. But it isn't good. And it doesn't get good. And you feel bad for everyone involved. You feel bad for the actors, the producers, the writer and the director. And the editor. You pretty much feel bad for everyone because they tried, you can tell that they tried. But they failed. And that isn't fun.

The story is clearly personal and fairly believable, even if at moments it feels like a movie and not real life. This is a sharp criticism because this movie screams at you that it is real life and not a phony movie, which makes the phony-ness a little harder to digest. But in the end, you know what is going to happen every step of the way. The story is terribly predictable. And, even more unfortunately, it is very slow. Not the good kind of slow where the tension builds, you get to know the characters better, and the atmosphere takes you to another place. It's just plain boring. You know what's you're supposed to feel and you you know what's going to happen next and how you're supposed to feel about that.

In the end, you're left wishing that they had not made this movie, or had added more depth to it so that you could like it. Because you want to like it. Very good performances from Nick Stahl and AnnaSophia Robb push this movie from a 2 to a 4 for me. Dennis Hopper also comes in and does some nice work.

Finally, I adore Charlize Theron. I think she is a true talent and a genuine person. She produced this movie and plays a supporting yet crucial role in it. But, and it kills me to say this, she is not at her best here. I wish I could say otherwise, but perhaps she was too close to the material to both produce and act in it.

Bill Maher's directorial debut 'Sleepwalking' follows a 12 year old Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) as tries to come to terms with her mother Jolene's (Charlize Theron) recent abandonment. In the process we're introduced to James (Nick Stahl) Tara's uncle and Jolene's brother. In the process Jolene and Tara wind up staying with James (a stunning Nick Stahl), Jolene's brother and Tara's uncle. Jolene one day disappears, she sends a letter saying that she has a plan and she'll be back in a month for Tara's birthday. Tara doesn't take this lightly; James however sees this as an opportunity to do some good, the pair then sets off on a departure from their everyday lives. Events unfold and Tara and James drive to James' father's farm expecting it to be a safe haven for themselves. Mr. Reedy (Dennis Hopper) is James' dad. When they finally arrive to the farm it turns out to be a hellish location set specifically for the all too predictable climax.

Sleepwalking has terrible camera work. It's one of the main problems with it. Its shot like a sappy Lifetime movie, close-up after close-up in the film's most pivotal scenes tires the audience. Another one of the problems is the quantity of unnecessary dialog and scenes that the film subjects the viewers to. Does the viewer really care that much about Jolene's ex boyfriend's nickname? No, they care about the plot and it moving on solidly.

The main highlight is Nick Stahl as James. He makes you feel for his character in ways I've never felt for a character before. He is simple minded and very caring, but those traits make it so that he never comes out on top. He led a very simple life as well before Tara came into his life for such a long period of time. How she transforms his character is interesting and Stahl displays it all. AnnaSophia Robb is also great as the young vixen who we watch. She shows again that she has a great potential for more serious and dramatic work in the years to come. In one of the film's best scenes she glides around skates, smoking cigarette acting reminiscent of Heather Graham's infamous Roller Girl. The boys all gawk as she smoothly moves around the pull, acting out of her age range and becoming more mature with each puff we understand that her character is perhaps doomed to end up like her mother. There is hope that she won't though hidden deep in James, just like her mother she just wants someone to show her that they love and care for her.

The film's two most prolific actors, legendary Dennis Hopper and the incomparable Charlize Theron disappoint a bit in their roles. Hopper's character is dry and bitter, Hopper plays him right but the overall deliver is still short of what it could be. Theron not only acted but also played producer to the film, however I think she should have stayed in the producer's chair for this one. Her character is a supporting one and she plays her right but you feel unsatisfied by her performance because there's not that much there.

Overall, Sleepwalking as a very bland film that could've much more if it had stayed more focused and less cliché at parts. Although, after the sleepwalk you'll remember it as a decent dream.

MY RATING: 6.0/10.0

Sleepwalking fmovies. The director could not have picked better actors for this film than Nick Stahl and AnnaSophia Robb. Every movie that I have seen AnnaSophia act in, she has taken her role seriously, with the fullest extent of her acting ability, and to heart.

Nick plays the uncle, James, and AnnaSophia plays James' niece, Tara. The two are locked in position with their own dark pasts (Tara dealing with her mother's sudden disappearance after her mother had been unable to look after her due to her lifestyle, and James being the dark memories of his abusive father with him and his sister Joleen *Tara's Mother*).

Now, I am not going to get into detail on everything the movie is about, because I honestly think you really should see the film if you haven't already, and I am not going to spoil it. However, the movie takes you to the dark place (Dennis Hopper plays a dark, twisted, and excellent Role as the Father of James and Joleen). It takes you through the emotions of hitting rock bottom, a child's world upside down in the eyes of a 12 year old, a mother's struggle to hold on, and with no other alternative, a return trip to the farm of evil.

10/10 P.S.: When about to watch this film, remember the words of AnnaSophia Robb herself - "You've got to keep your mind wide open."

New director William Maher and writer Zac Stanford previously worked together in THE CHUMSCRUBBER and the similarity of vision is apparent in SLEEPWALKING: both films deal with the empty shells of hollow people aimlessly seeking connection in a world that has become foreign territory. It is a dark, cold, brooding film that somehow manages to maintain our attention with the hope that the gloomy tunnel though which the characters are passing will have a semblance of light at the end.

Joleen (Charlize Theron) is the inadequate, loving-but-inconstant mother of twelve-year-old Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) whose reckless an aimless life leads to constant moving and lack of roots. Evicted form her latest residence Joleen and Tara move in with Joleen's younger brother James (Nick Stahl) whose similarly aimless life is defined by a trashy apartment and a mindless construction work job. Tara is sullen, disappointed in her mother's erratic, irresponsible behavior, and when Joleen once again takes off 'on a new idea', Tara is left with James - trying to figure out an existence for survival. James loses his job due to absenteeism, takes up residence in the filthy basement of his nerdy co-worker Randall (Woody Harelson), while the town cop (Mathew St. Patrick) reluctantly places Tara in a foster home to await the return of Joleen. Tara prefers life with James to her 'imprisonment' and the two take off on a road trip, seeking some degree of happiness and love in a world gone berserk. When James runs out of money, he heads to his old home farm for refuge, an unlikely endpoint as his and Joleen's childhood was warped by their abusive farmer father (Dennis Hopper). The return to the farm, James hopes, will provide connection to Tara's past, but instead it results in a tragedy that ultimately moves Tara back to her 'home' and to Joleen, while James drives off into the unknown future, finally awakened from his sleepwalking through life.

The film is as bleak as the flat and snowy countryside (the film was shot in Canada's winter) and that countryside reflects the desperate loneliness of the characters. The small cast offers solid portrayals with the work of Nick Stahl being the standout performance. Theron, Robb, Harelson, Hopper, and Deborra-Lee Furness (in a small but poignant role) make the best of a shaky script. This is a mood piece and can become depressing if the viewer expects resolution of the sad and empty lives the characters lead. But there is a haunting quality to the look of the film that stays with the viewer, especially in the mystery in the eyes of the character James as he drives into an unknown but awakened future. Grady Harp

"Sleepwalking" starts off a bit like "Frozen River," focused on a single mother struggling to make ends meet in rural America (though it was actually filmed in Saskatchewan). But the movie quickly veers off in another direction, shifting that focus onto her 13-year-old daughter, Tara, and her younger brother, James (the girl's uncle), who are suddenly forced to rely on one another for comfort and support when Joleen temporarily bows out of the picture.

When her boyfriend is arrested for growing marijuana, Jolene (Carlize Theron) and Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) are forced to move in with James (Nick Stahl), a soft-spoken, good-hearted fellow in his 20s who is two months behind in his rent and who barely scrapes by on what he makes at his low-paying construction job. Soon, Joleen has split the scene, James has lost his job, and social services has taken Tara to live in a foster-care facility. So James and Tara decide to head out onto the open highway, stopping off at roadside diners and motels, and staying one step ahead of the authorities who are in pursuit of them.

"Sleepwalking" is one of those gritty, slice-of-life dramas that sympathetically and accurately depicts what life is like for the working poor. It is rife with authentic details and rich in small town atmosphere. Director William Mahr and cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchia really know how to extract the essence of a locale for mood and effect, making the bleak landscape and stark setting integral elements in the drama - an effect greatly enhanced by Christopher Young's rich and evocative acoustic-flavored score. Superb, naturalistic performances by the three lead actors make us truly care about the people they are portraying and the things that are happening to them.

"Sleepwalking" is not without its flaws, however. For one thing, the movie undercuts some of its carefully crafted verisimilitude with its casting of "name" actors in a few of the key secondary roles - primarily, Woody Harrelson as James' friend and work buddy, and an over-reaching Dennis Hopper as Joleen and James' abusive dad. These parts would have been more effective had they been played by less-familiar actors (though I do realize that, without such star power attached to the project, a movie like "Sleepwalking" might never have gotten made in the first place). More seriously, the otherwise excellent screenplay by Zac Stanford falls apart a bit in the final third, resorting to stereotyping and hokey melodrama when it most needs to stay true to its characters and their situations.

Still, despite the patness, "Sleepwalking" is a quietly powerful, richly atmospheric tale of a group of troubled but essentially decent people struggling, despite their all-too-human weaknesses, to make their way in the world.