The unfortunately named Sleepwalking is, at the very least, truth in advertising – some viewers may be meandering out of the theater before the end of the movie. This film runs only 100 minutes, but it feels more than two hours long; though the film is interesting in the first half, its snail-paced second half will lose viewers.
The plot sounds OK on paper: Good-for-nothing mom Joleen (Charlize Theron, In the Valley of Elah) ditches her 11-year-old daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb, The Reaping) and leaves her with Joleen’s poor brother James (Nick Stahl, Sin City). Broke enough already, James can’t exactly handle the responsibility of a daughter, so it isn’t a surprise when Social Services takes Tara away. But after seeing her in a crowded shelter, James takes her back, making them fugitives on the run for the rest of the film.
It all sounds a lot better than it works onscreen – one wonders how all these actors, including Woody Harrelson (Semi-Pro) as a nice guy construction worker and Dennis Hopper (Hell Ride) as Joleen’s and James’ estranged father – got involved in this project.
The film may sound good – well, not really, as Zac Stanford’s (The Chumscrubber) dull dialogue didn’t exactly jump off the page – but it just doesn’t transfer well. The only thing that jumps off the screen is the film’s effort to look “real” – it’s gritty, but not in a good way. Everyone looks as if they’ve been crying all night, and the houses have carefully applied signs of wear. Sleepwalking strains to give us a sense of an authentic world of poverty, but it comes off as produced, not realistic.
Sleepwalking also fails to create any gripping drama. There’s a massive, crucial difference between movies that are slow and movies that are just plain boring. A slow movie might not have a ton of action or dialogue but might retain interest through tension (true of much of No Country for Old Men), humor (the recent The Band’s Visit) or engaging characters (much of Sideways). In Sleepwalking, the spare story isn’t supplemented by anything else.
To be fair, a lot of the action in Sleepwalking might hold more interest if they weren’t so predictable. For example, we know Hopper is going to be mean as Joleen and James’ estranged father; when he is nothing but that, it doesn’t make for engaging drama.
And despite a very fine effort from Stahl, James doesn’t have enough personality for the viewer to relate to. He’s a simple, quiet man, and that’s it. Character is of the utmost importance in this genre, and Stanford fails to give James enough of one.
But at least Stahl is well-cast as James; the same can’t be said of Theron and Robb, who seem spectacularly out of place. Theron, playing ugly as she did in Monster, is still way too attractive to convey the desperate female hustler she’s supposed to be. A conversation with Stahl about how old she looks rings with unintentional irony. And Robb, with the otherworldly sheen in her eyes, was much better cast in The Reaping. She isn’t the ideal choice to play a normal, albeit mistreated, girl.
First-time director Bill Maher is not devoid of talent. There are shots here and there that have some beauty to them, such as a tree silhouetted against the sunset, James washing blood off his hands as they shake and a lone car traveling down an empty road. And there’s a strange dream sequence involving a pool and some roller-skates, basically out of nowhere, which sparkles with bizarre energy.
But by the time James says, “It’s like I’ve been livin’ in a dream, like I been sleepwalking,” the jeers should be out in full effect. While a few scenes kind of work, Sleepwalking is too ponderous, too slice-of-life and ultimately too boring to recommend to anyone.
dan.benamor@gmail.com
RATING: 1 STAR OUT OF 5
