Sleepless in Seattle

Directed by Nora Ephron, Sleepless in Seattle follows Meg Ryan’s Annie Reed as she finds herself falling for a man (Tom Hanks’ Sam Baldwin) she’s never met after hearing him speak of his grief on a national radio show – with the storyline detailing the separate exploits of the two figures as she prepares for her marriage to Bill Pullman’s boring Walter and he finally begins dating again. Filmmaker Ephron, working from a script written with David S. Ward and Jeff Arch, delivers a slow-moving narrative that keeps Hanks and Ryan’s respective characters apart for the majority of the movie’s runtime, and there’s little doubt that the film, as a result, suffers from a somewhat erratic atmosphere that’s allayed by the two stars’ undeniably charismatic work – although, by that same token, it’s clear that Sleepless in Seattle does suffer from a dearth of wholeheartedly memorable sequences. (There are, admittedly, a small handful of exceptions to this, including a high-water-mark interlude detailing Sam’s conversation on the aforementioned radio show.) Despite its somewhat uninvolving atmosphere, however, the picture remains fairly watchable throughout and it’s worth noting, certainly, that it generally succeeds more as a character study than as a full-fledged romance (eg Sam’s ongoing efforts at moving on with his life are quite stirring and emotionally resonant) – which ultimately ensures that the climactic coupling isn’t quite able to pack the heartwarming punch Ephron has surely intended. The end result is a decent drama that never entirely lives up to its place as a classic romcom, with the typically stellar work from both Hanks and Ryan often buoying the proceedings through its more overtly ineffective stretches.

**1/2 out of ****