While you were Sleeping (Sandra Bullock)

We wanted something light-weight to watch, not too long or complex. ‘While you were sleeping’, which we first saw about ten years ago, seemed like a good choice. We had both forgotten what it was about, although as we watched a few incidents did seem familiar.

Sandra Bullock stars as Lucy, a young and not very confident girl who works as a ticket collector. She does her job well, and dreams… until one day she sees someone and feels an instant connection. He barely notices her, and she might never have seen him again, but for a dramatic incident in which she saves his life.

The bulk of the film takes place while he is euphemistically sleeping - in fact in a coma, fighting for his life. He has a family, all delightfully caricatured, who rally round. When they realise that Lucy saved his life, they want to adopt her - and get the mistaken impression that she is his fiancee. She loves being with this talkative, affectionate and quirky family that she can’t quite bring herself to tell them that she doesn’t in fact know him at all.

Then things become even more complicated when she starts to fall for his brother Jack. It’s obvious to the viewer that they find each other attractive, but neither of them realise it at first. Moreover, Jack thinks she’s engaged to his brother and he’s an honourable man. And Lucy feels herself falling further and further into deception…

The pace of the film is excellent, and there’s a nice balance between the two main characters, who become excellent friends before anything else develops. The more minor stereotyped characters are amusing - there are some good lines that made us smile, and also some poignancy in Lucy’s deeply felt need for acceptance. Sandra Bullock is perfectly cast and Bill Pullman is also ideal as Jack. His comatose brother (Peter Gallagher) has a much smaller part to play but also does it well.

We had entirely forgotten how the film ended; it could have gone several ways. We thought it nicely done and entirely satisfying.

This is a good film if you would like a light-weight gentle romantic comedy. It’s rated PG, unusually for this genre, but there’s no violence, only minor bad language, and nothing explicit. There are some innuendoes and sexual references but they would go over the head of most children. Not that a young child would find this particularly interesting.

Definitely recommended.

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