Film
Sleepless in Seattle
- Director
- Nora Ephron
- Certificate
- PG
- Running Time
- 100 mins
A romantic comedy in which the protagonists spend only two minutes onscreen together. That was the intriguing premise that packed ‘em in to this one. But on reflection, it’s little more than a refinement of Nora Ephron’s previous hit, When Harry Met Sally. Instead of ‘couple meet but don’t get it together for years’ it’s ‘couple don’t meet and don’t get it together for months’.
Seattle, Christmas Eve. Eight-year-old Jonah Baldwin (Ross Malinger) phones a local radio shrink and asks her to find a wife for his glum bereaved architect pa Sam (Tom Hanks), prompting a frenzy of media interest. On the other side of the country, journalist Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) finds herself caught up in the story. What lifts this way above bog-standard triple-hanky weepie level is Ephron’s sharp, witty and richly characterised script. The two leads are well supported by Bill Pullman as Annie’s dreary fiance and Barbara Garrick as Sam’s irritating girlfriend, who are clearly meant for each other as much as their more glamorous partners. On the downside, it’s not without its longueurs, Hanks is more lovable as a grouch than a sensitive romantic, and the soundtrack comprises the most shameless compilation-flogging set of old smoochers you’ll ever hear.
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