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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1990s
    Movies - 1990s Movies - S 3 Mins Read

    Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

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    Tom Hanks is a widowed Chicago architect named Sam, so overcome with grief after the sudden death of a wife he adores that he packs up his son Jonah (Ross Malinger) and moves to Seattle to start a new life.

    sleepless2Jonah – the most precocious child since the kid in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father – is so worried about his Dad’s sleeplessness and depression that he calls a phone-in late-night radio shrink program and gets Sam on the air to two thousand sympathetic listeners.

    Sam becomes known and cherished as “Sleepless in Seattle”.

    Annie (Meg Ryan), a pretty reporter at the Baltimore Sun, hears the show on her car radio while driving to Washington DC on Christmas Eve, and falls in love.

    The rest of this charming movie takes a circuitous route to their first meeting (in the final scene) on top of the Empire State Building, but while waiting for the outcome we are treated to exemplary work by two engaging stars and some of the year’s finest dialogue.

    Writer Nora Ephron – in her directing debut – uses popular music to emphasise and punch up the action.

    sleepless3When Sam bites the bullet in Seattle and enters dating hell, Roy Rogers sings Back in the Saddle Again. When Annie can’t sleep in Baltimore, Carly Simon sings In the Wee Small Hours.

    Rosie O’Donnell is funny as Annie’s buddy, who firmly believes it is possible to fall in love with someone you’ve never met as long as you get frequent flyer miles, Rob Reiner is even funnier as Sam’s buddy who brings the 1940s movie advice up to date:

    “Times have changed. First, you gotta be friends . . . then you neck . . . then you have tests and you get to do it with a condom.”

    Bill Pullman, as Annie’s fiancé – a hypochondriac allergic to everything – adds another wonderful portrait to his colourful gallery of movie dorks.

    Sleepless in Seattle moves too slowly for its own good, and some people grow restless watching Hanks and Ryan spending the whole movie in separate towns.

    But go for the premise – “It’s easier to get killed by a terrorist than get married after the age of 40” – and warm to all the parallels to An Affair to Remember (1957) and you end up with a modern fairy tale that will recharge your batteries and rekindle your faith in love and decency in the Nihilistic Nineties.

    Sam Baldwin
    Tom Hanks
    Annie Reed
    Meg Ryan
    Walter
    Bill Pullman
    Jay
    Rob Reiner
    Becky
    Rosie O’Donnell
    Jonah Baldwin
    Ross Malinger
    Jessica
    Gaby Hoffmann
    Greg
    Victor Garber
    Claire
    Dana Ivey
    Suzy
    Rita Wilson
    Victoria
    Barbara Garrick
    Maggie Baldwin
    Carey Lowell
    Dennis Reed
    David Hyde Pierce
    Rob Tom
    Riis Farrell
    Barbara Reed
    Le Clanché du Rand
    Cliff Reed
    Kevin O’Morrison
    Betsy Reed
    Valerie Wright
    Irene Reed
    Frances Conroy
    Harold Reed
    Tom Tammi
    Uncle Milton
    Calvin Trillin
    Dr Marcia Fieldstone
    Caroline Aaron
    Loretta
    Linda Wallem
    Harriet
    LaTanya Richardson
    Keith
    Tom Mcgowan
    Wyatt
    Stephen Mellor
    Bob
    Brian McConnachie
    Clarise
    Amanda Maher
    Jessica’s mother
    Hannah Cox
    Jessica’s father
    Rich Hawkins
    Cynthia
    Julie Janney

    Director
    Nora Ephron

    Video

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