Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

When I tell people that I haven’t seen Sleepless in Seattle, they usually give me a surprised look.  One reason is that I am a huge fan of Meg Ryan and two its because this one is relatively popular.  I get it, I really do but I had TV restrictions when I was a kid and this hit right in that time frame of my life where I was in elementary school and it wasn’t really my dad’s sort of movie, so no, I never saw it until now.  Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks was a good pair in You’ve Got Mail and I’d really like to see how they did in this one.

Before I move on with the review, I’d like to direct your attention to MovieRob who has his Monthly Genre Grandeur with April’s genre being romantic comedies. Maybe you have seen a romantic comedy or you love the genre, you should send him a review and join in! I will be sending one over to him soon once I decide which to watch.  For more info, you should head HERE!

Okay? We’re good to go? Did you follow him so you can at least read up his awesome reviews?

Awesome! Lets carry on with this review 🙂

Director: Nora Ephron

Cast: Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Ross Malinger, Bill Pullman, Rosie O’Donnell

After the passing of his wife, Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) and his son, Jonah (Ross Malinger) decide to move to the West Coast to try to have new beginnings and move on.  However, having moved for over a year, Jonah sees that his father hasn’t moved on and doesn’t sleep so on Christmas Eve, he decides to call the local radio station and ask for the help of Dr. Marcia Fieldstone.  Reluctantly, Sam is dragged into this and as he pours his heart out about his marriage, women who are listening to this fall in love with him and he is nicknamed Sleepless in Seattle.  One of these women is the engaged Annie (Meg Ryan) who lives in Baltimore.  Although she is happy with her fiance Walter (Bill Pullman), she feels drawn to Sam and tries to get to know him better despite their distance. She writes him a letter in hopes that they could meet on top of the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day.

I have no idea what Sleepless in Seattle  was about but see that reaction up there? That is how I kind of looked like when I was watching it and Tom Hanks gets the name of Sleepless in Seattle.  Plus, it had an extensive relating to An Affair to Remember which I only watched afterwards to understand better what they were trying to talk about.

All joking aside, Sleepless in Seattle was a good romantic comedy.  I can’t quite decide if I like You’ve Got Mail or this one more when I finshed but I have a feeling that I may like this one a tad more even though some parts didn’t quite make much sense (like the scene up there) but then rom-coms are really about making sense, its about the feel-good factor. Agree? Thought you would 😉 This flick is really the essence of defining love because its about magic, fate, destiny and all that stuff.  Whether you believe it or not, I do and I eat that stuff up.

Sleepless in Seattle has a charismatic cast. You already know that part, right? Tom Hanks is a phenomenal actor and even though him and Meg Ryan don’t really have many scenes together per se, they both carry each side so well.  Its pretty entertaining to watch them both carry themselves through this flick.  Meg Ryan’s Annie struggling between wanting and resisting the urge to know Sam more while Tom Hanks’s Sam tries to move on with a lady that laughs in a creepy way.  Plus, the little kid was just so hilarious. And how can I forget Rosie O’Donnell! She’s been poking through all of these movies I’ve been watching and she is just the most awesome part of the movie because she brings this energy and wit.

As a fan of romantic comedy, I have to give a round of applause to Nora Ephron for writing and directing a lot of them.  She knows how to put together a fun, heartfelt and especially romantic love story.  Sure, there is nothing epic about her stories but it always leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy and thats what feel-good movies should do 🙂

Another Meg movie scratched off the list, Paul S! Which next?

 Which do you prefer for Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan pairing: You’ve Got Mail or Sleepless in Seattle? What did you think of this?

 

Beautiful Girls (1996)

Bouncing back to a more recent recommendations from MovieRob, he suggested I watch Beautiful Girls and another one that I’m still looking for.  Luckily Netflix had Beautiful Girls so here we are! I’ve been following Rob fairly recently and he does amazing reviews and he has a side project of currently reviewins Oscar Best Acting Winners and the respective movies. You should definitely go check it out!

Director: Ted Demme

Cast: Matt Dillon, Timothy Hutton, Noah Emmerich, Lauren Holly, Annabeth Gish, Rosie O’Donnell, Max Perlich, Natalie Portman, Uma Thurman, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino

New York City piano player Willie (Timothy Hutton) heads back home for his high school reunion.  Being with his friends and in his old surroundings, while at the going away to think about the crossroads of his life, career and relationship, he sees that nothing has changed much for his friends who stayed at home. They still have the mentality of when they were in high school and each has their own personal struggles to work out as they all face growing up; making the responsible choices.

Beautiful Girls is a thoughtful movie, possibly more geared towards men as they struggle between the idea of growing up and growing old.  Its pretty refreshing because we rarely get the view of men in this phase and a lot of movies like this are more formed in chick flicks geared towards women.  There’s a lot to love about this movie, especially the cast and character development.

I’m not going to say I understand men very well.  I’m happy most days I somewhat understand the logic of what my boyfriend does.  Its a never-ending process.  This movie was special in that way because I’m not saying that men ALL go through the same thing because that would be unfair but this was a nice way to see things. Giving each of these guys, mostly 4 of them, a bigger, more focused story meshed with the women in their life in a rather balanced way was a good thing.  I understood a bit more of the characters: Willie (Timothy Hutton), Tommy (Matt Dillon) and Paul (Michael Rapaport) while Mo (Noah Emmerich) had a more solid life set so he was something of a guiding light along with some of the other sub characters.  It was a very subconscious thing but even though a lot of their mentality seemed off to me, along the way I grew to connect in a way where I wanted them to do the “right” thing.

Other than the guys having a good impact, they needed some ladies that could match up to them.  One of the most intriguing one was Uma Thurman’s appearance as Andera.  She was a beautiful girl that they all were attracted to.  The beautiful thing that was also so understanding and for many of them, she also was helpful in an enlightening way.  Another one that I liked was the young Natalie Portman who had sudden and oddly deep but simple conversations with Willie and in many ways, made him understand a few things and question his life.  Another character that was funny was Rosie O’Donnell’s supporting character, especially when she talked about the unrealistic portrayal of women.

Beautiful Girls was great not only for its characters but it had a really awesome soundtrack.  If you’ve seen this, one of my favorite feel good moments was when they all were together and starting singing Sweet Caroline. Its full of these fun moments but was also thoughtful and engaging.  Its a side we rarely see in men and just the thoughts that might go through their heads as in a way, they shift their vision of women as they get older.  The longing to not grow old but also to not grow up.  Thats one of my favorite conversations in this movie where Mo and Willie talk about this exact thing of his “attraction” to Natalie Portman’s Marty as a way of showing that he didn’t want to grow old and Mo says its his way of not wanting to grow up.  See, Mo = enlightening 😉

The essence of the movie really is in this ramble from Michael Rapaport when he goes on about “beautiful girls”:

Supermodels are beautiful girls, Will. A beautiful girl can make you dizzy, like you’ve been drinking Jack and Coke all morning. She can make you feel high full of the single greatest commodity known to man – promise. Promise of a better day. Promise of a greater hope. Promise of a new tomorrow. This particular aura can be found in the gait of a beautiful girl. In her smile, in her soul, the way she makes every rotten little thing about life seem like it’s going to be okay. The supermodels, Willy? That’s all they are. Bottled promise. Scenes from a brand new day. Hope dancing in stiletto heels.-taken from IMDB

With that said, I have no idea how I’ve never heard of Beautiful Girls.  Its a pretty awesome movie.  Great soundtrack, thoughtful characters and packed with a nice pace and a few feel good moments.  Its fun and fantastic! I totally recommend you to watch this!

Thanks again to Rob for introducing this to me! He is as awesome as this movie and you have to check out his site.  I linked it on top with his blog name! 🙂