Saddled with a title all too true to its somnambulist pace, Sleepwalking is a textbook case of a bad movie partially redeemed by good acting.
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03/14/08
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Sleepwalking (2008)
18
%
Tomatometer
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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.
Theatrical Release:Mar 14, 2008 Limited
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
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Reviews for Sleepwalking
Top CriticSleepwalking is a slow-moving family drama guaranteed to induce a nap if not somnambulism.
03/14/08
Top CriticThe people never come alive, and the unremitting nastiness of the material is like being beaten with soggy towels for 90 minutes. Maybe another director and other leads might have helped.
03/14/08
Top CriticBeware any movie that ends with a cliché as dire as 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life.' What comes before that in Sleepwalking is relentlessly depressing.
03/14/08
Top CriticIt'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.
03/14/08
Terrific performances and a bleak, riveting look at life on the economic fringes eventually gives way to an overly familiar tale of abuse, denial and catharsis that feels like warmed over Sam Shepard minus the poetry.
03/14/08
It's more disjointed than stirring, more listless than wounding and mostly a misfire -- despite some memorable performances and the fittingly desolate backdrop of Saskatchewan.
03/14/08
The transparently familiar issues -- abuse, unemployment, parental neglect, promiscuity -- are stapled onto characters who never seem credible.
03/14/08
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.
03/14/08
The movie seems terrified of true psychological complexity or perversity. It's less a family tragedy than a lousy country dirge.
03/14/08
Top CriticSleepwalking is a frustrating case because Stahl, Robb and Theron all give performances that are subtle, delicate and smart -- it's just that they're steamrollered by the movie's relentlessness.
03/14/08
Top CriticThe cast performs gamely in this grim and gray affair, but with Stanford's words and dead end story, the actors never really stood a chance.
03/14/08
Charlize Theron only gets better as an actress, and she certainly wouldn't sign on to a low-budget indie such as Sleepwalking without believing in the material. The material, alas, does Theron no favors.
03/14/08
Top CriticFilmed mostly in winter, in browns, grays and soiled whites, Sleepwalking sustains a mood of unrelenting bleakness, wearing its aesthetic of desolation like a badge of integrity.
03/14/08
Top CriticIt's a story, which is more than Snow Angels had. It's still miserable lowlifes who can't hold menial jobs languishing in feeling bad.
03/14/08
[V]isually impressive but naratively underpowered...
03/14/08
The 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.
03/13/08
Fine performances - including a nasty turn by Dennis Hopper - rouse Sleepwalking from its slumber.
03/13/08
This entire movie is a country music song, and not one of the classics by Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson. I was waiting for them to get a pet dog, but be forced to give him the Old Yeller treatment!
03/13/08
Sleepwalking is an unfortunate title for a movie that appears to be doing just that.
03/13/08
Latest News for Sleepwalking
July 04, 2008:
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March 17, 2008:
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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.
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March 13, 2008:
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