How does the Tomatometer work 
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... [More]
Starring: Charlize Theron, Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Hopper
Director: William Maher
Sleepwalking stands as a heartening reminder that the future of American cinema may rest with those independent filmmakers working far from the bottom-line executives heading the shattered remnants of the old Hollywood studios.
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.
Relentlessly downbeat, with a glimmer of a payoff in the last couple of scenes, Sleepwalking is a film that has 'indie' written all over it -- for better and for worse.
Fine performances - including a nasty turn by Dennis Hopper - rouse Sleepwalking from its slumber.
There's an inescapable sense that we've seen this sort of dysfunctional family indie drama before, but ... Sleepwalking ultimately emerges as a solid example of the genre.
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.
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.
Despite its deficiencies, and the inadequate screen time allotted to Theron (who's quite good), Sleepwalking has a core of feeling. It's about a do-gooder who, lacking all skills for it, does good anyway. His emotional odyssey has real poignancy.
It’s a film of mood -- and the mood is perfectly captured.
This is a breakthrough performance [for AnnaSophia Robb] that should do wonders for her career.
Top CriticThe direction is hackneyed with all-ponderous close-ups to guess the character's 'deep,' inner thoughts. It was unquestionably 'sleepwalking,' which is a perfect description of any audience member who chooses to walk out on this one.
Zac Stanford's screenplay works only as a theorem proving Murphy's Law.
An inert, sloppily written melodrama as grim and featureless as its frozen Midwestern setting.
The film is a dissection of damaged goods, but in place of a steady hand guiding matters to believable and sympathetic ends, director Bill Maher (not that one) takes the picture to unwanted extremes of behavior and guilt.
It's all too aptly named.
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.
The inherently uneventful nature of Stanford's script becomes more and more problematic as the film progresses...
A small-scale family drama that walks the walk, but doesn't seem to know where it's going half the time.
It's no easy task staying awake through Sleepwalking, a downbeat debut from Bill Maher (no, not that one). Only a typically intense performance from co-star Nick Stahl offers the jolt needed to keep us alert.
As the abusive patriarch, Dennis Hopper gives such an atrocious, one-dimensional performance that he completely throws out of balance a family melodrama that has few artistic or psychological merits to begin with.
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. 
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.
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...
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN.com |
GameSpy |
Comrade |
Arena |
FilePlanet |
GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox |
Planets |
Vaults |
VE3D |
CheatsCodesGuides |
GameStats |
GamerMetrics
AskMen.com |
Rotten Tomatoes |
Direct2Drive |
Green Pixels
IGN RSS Feeds
Comment
