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Movies / On DVD / Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking

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Sleepwalking (2008)

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Reviews Counted:57

Fresh:10

Rotten:47

Average Rating:4.2/10

Consensus: Despite some sharp performances, Sleepwalking suffers from a grimness of tone and sluggish pacing.

Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Nick Stahl (Sin City, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), AnnaSophia Robb (Bridge to Terabithia, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron (Monster, North... Nick Stahl (Sin City, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), AnnaSophia Robb (Bridge to Terabithia, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron (Monster, North Country) star in Sleepwalking, a moving drama about the deep familial bond that develops between a 30-year-old man and his young niece after the girl's mother suddenly leaves town. Directed by William Maher from a screenplay by Zac Stanford (The Chumscrubber), Sleepwalking also stars Academy Award® nominees Dennis Hopper (Hoosiers, Blue Velvet) and Woody Harrelson (The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Natural Born Killers).

Forced out of her home after her boyfriend is arrested, Joleen Reedy (Charlize Theron) needs a place to stay with her 11-year-old daughter, Tara (AnnaSophia Robb). She turns for help to her younger brother, James (Nick Stahl)— a simple and overly trusting man who doesn’t hesitate to welcome them into his modest rental apartment.

Almost as soon as she moves in, however, Joleen hits the road with another man. Utterly ill-equipped to be the sole guardian of an adolescent girl, James does his best to make his distraught niece happy. But before long, things spin out of control: he loses his road crew job and Tara is put into foster care. Additionally, old wounds from his emotionally abusive and sometimes violent father (Dennis Hopper) begin to reopen as James is forced to re-examine his life.

That’s when James makes a fateful decision that will bring his life full circle and force him to face his demons. He takes off with Tara and the pair assumes new identities as father and daughter. What starts out as a ploy to evade authorities takes on a deeper significance as James strives to become the dad Tara never had, and for the first time finds a true purpose in life. --© Overture Films
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Starring: Charlize Theron, Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Hopper

Starring: Charlize Theron, Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, Deborra-Lee Furness

Director: William Maher

Director: William Maher
Screenwriter: Zac Stanford
Producer: Charlize Theron, J.J. Harris, Beth Kono, A.J. Dix, Rob Merilees, Anthony Rhulen
Composer: Christopher Young
Studio: Overture Films

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Reviews for Sleepwalking

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Each bend in the road positively screeches with the urgency of impending catharsis, but the film never earns its resolution.

Full Review Source: indieWIRE | comment Comment
08/08/09
Leo Goldsmith
Leo Goldsmith
indieWIRE

The movie seems unusually honest in portraying the no-option existence of the working poor, but the story slips into melodrama in the last reel.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/08/08
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

Taking its cue from the tabloids, this is yet another addition to that tacky category of scandal sheet cinema. Why do celebrities with charmed Hollywood lives imagine everyday people as a bunch of sleazy or dimwitted degenerates, misfits and assassins.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment Comment
07/04/08
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze

If you enjoyed MONSTER'S BALL (it's not as good as that one however), you might find yourself pulled in by this moving drama.

Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | comment Comment
06/18/08
Austin Kennedy
Austin Kennedy
Sin Magazine

The let's-take-a-road-trip method of character healing has been done to death, but unlike Little Miss Sunshine, James & Tara are made up of more than just cute quirks.

Full Review Source: The Cinema Source | comment Comment
06/04/08
Michael Dance
Michael Dance
The Cinema Source

Theron sneaks out the door roughly 1/2 an hour into the picture. What is the movie to do without her energy?

Full Review Source: Film Experience | comment Comment
05/15/08
Nathaniel Rogers
Nathaniel Rogers
Film Experience

Sleepwalking seems especially cruel to dwell on the bleak and cold at this time of year, when icy drizzle saturates the bones.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
04/11/08
Graham Killeen
Graham Killeen
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

...a lifeless movie about uninteresting people.

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
03/25/08
Jim Lane
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review

Stylistically strange, sluggish and ultimately unsatisfying domestic drama.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
03/25/08
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

It’s a film of mood -- and the mood is perfectly captured.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
03/24/08
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper

It's all too aptly named.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
03/21/08
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Sleepwalking provides character arcs for its two protagonists but neither is as interesting or memorable as the performances warrant.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
03/21/08
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

A girl abandoned by her mother, a father unable to offer anything but hatred to his own children -- these are narrative elements of potentially great force, but they play out here without much shape, definition or power.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Daily News | comment Comment
03/21/08
Gary Thompson
Gary Thompson
Philadelphia Daily News

The movie is so overly familiar, and its take on the dysfunctional family dynamics is so unoriginal, that the whole thing might as well have been titled Generic Bleak Sundance Film Festival Drama No. 500.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
03/20/08
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

The inherently uneventful nature of Stanford's script becomes more and more problematic as the film progresses...

Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
03/19/08
David Nusair
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews

It’s apparent some meaningful visuals are being approached here, but it seems like the film keeps missing its mark.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
03/17/08
Sara Schieron
Sara Schieron
Boxoffice Magazine

Not quite enough new here to make this film a hit, but enough of Theron, Hopper and Harrelson to make the film worth watching.

Full Review Source: Monsters and Critics | comment Comment
03/15/08
Ron Wilkinson
Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics

Zac Stanford's screenplay works only as a theorem proving Murphy's Law.

Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly | comment Comment
03/15/08
Amy Nicholson
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

Portentous and dull, the film features one of the worst over-the-top performances by Dennis Hopper, who plays an abusive father. His role upends what could have been a mildly interesting family drama.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
03/14/08
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today

The cast is uniformly excellent, starting with 14-year-old Robb -- she makes a strong transition from child roles with her portrayal of the mercurial Tara.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
03/14/08
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
all

Latest News for Sleepwalking

July 04, 2008: Taking its cue from the tabloids, this is yet another addition to that tacky category of scandal sheet cinema. Why do celebrities with charmed Hollywood lives imagine everyday people as a bunch of sleazy or dimwitted degenerates, misfits and assassins. Opens in new window
More...

March 17, 2008: Charlize Theron Has Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
She'll spend the summer blending humor and superhero action with Will Smith and Jason Bateman in Hancock, but Charlize Theron already has Vengeance on her mind. More...

March 14, 2008: Taking its cue from the tabloids, this is yet another addition to that tacky category of scandal sheet cinema. Why do celebrities with charmed Hollywood lives imagine everyday people as a bunch of sleazy or dimwitted degenerates, misfits and assassins. Opens in new window
More...

March 13, 2008: Critics Consensus: Who's Better, Who's Best; Never Goes Down; Guess Doomsday's Tomatometer!
This week at the movies, we've Seussian silliness (Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, starring Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell), mixed martial arts madness (Never Back Down, starring... More...

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