journal features

movie review - While You Were Sleeping

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 1999.10.24

This is a romantic comedy set up when the female lead saves the brother of the male lead from being crushed by a train. She'd had a crush on the male lead, seeing him daily as a commuter from her vantage point of a fare collector. It's a little dated in the sense that transit has been under furious assault for generations now and most people wouldn't consider anything but their Ford Explorer for a commute. But it's entertaining in a non-offensive Hollywood way and has enough to it that it's not just a slog. Plus, female lead is played by the infectious Sandra Bullock.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.