Christina Reviews *While You Were Sleeping*

         This is a silly little Sandra Bullock movie about a woman who falls in love with a complete stranger and then finds herself in the middle of an hilarious misunderstanding. 

          One day, the stranger gets beaten up and left for unconscious on the train tracks where Sandra’s character works.  She saves his life.

        A little while later, he’s in the hospital, and a nurse asks Sandra’s character if she is related to the man.  Sandra’s character mutters under her breath how he’s only the man she’s going to marry.  Now, in the real world, the nurse would call the police and have Sandra’s character arrested for being weird and talking to herself.  In the movie, the nurse jumps to the conclusion that Sandra’s character must be the man’s fiancee.

       When the comatose man’s family hears about his new fiancee, they are overjoyed.  Sandra’s character can’t bring herself to dash their hopes.

        And this is the basic premise of the story.  The situation is made complicated (or made simple---take your pick) by the fact that the comatose man has a brother played by Bill Pullman….

        Oh.  I’m sorry.  I thought you would all take the hint.  You see, I say “Bill Pullman,”  and you’re supposed to conjure up the image of two sweat-drenched lovers rolling around in the sack together  (or at least fantasizing about doing so since cheating on a comatose stranger is absolutely unforgivable, or didn’t you know?)  I guess Bill Pullman doesn’t inspire those kinds of fantasies after all.  Damn it to hell!

        I won’t give away the ending, but suffice it to say, it’s predictable.

        In the European version of this movie, the characters would all sit around in a hospital room, smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee and bemoaning the vagaries of life.  It would be incredibly depressing.  And the man in the coma would inevitably die. And it would be an exercise in tedium and monotonous navel-gazing.  But at least it would be somewhat honest.

       While You Were Sleeping, on the other hand, is as American as it gets.  Nora Ephron could have written the script.  Wait, did she?

      No wonder the other countries hate us.  It’s not because we take them to war.  It’s because of movies like this.