The Sleepwalker (2014/MPI/IFC Films DVD)

Picture: B- Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C

The Sleepwalker is a Norwegian study on sex and dark pasts that evokes more yawning than thoughts. Interestingly shot at times, the film seems like just another dysfunctional family story with some nudity thrown in to distract the audience from the overstuffed plot line and uninteresting characters. The film stars Gene Witt, Christopher Abbott, Brady Corbet, and Stephanie Ellis and focuses on those four actors throughout most of the film, which exhibits an almost theatrical feel.

A young couple, Kaia and Andrew, are renovating Kaia's secluded family estate. Their lives are violently disrupted upon the unexpected arrival of Kaia's sister, Christine, and her fiance, Ira. Prior tensions and jealousies burgeon as new alliances form and childhood patterns resurface. As the days grow darker and the nights more disturbing, Kaia is forced to confront Christine's increasingly tangled perception of reality, which in turn may have begun to alter her own. When one of the four characters goes missing, the three left behind are flung into upheaval trying to fill in the blanks.

An intriguing premise and interesting score can't save the fact that this film is full of un-interesting, un-relatable characters and a climax that doesn't pay off for all that was set up in the film's first act.

Captured in standard definition with a 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and an English lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track, the film looks as good as it can on DVD. English and Spanish subs are also on the disc.

Extras include Interviews and Trailers.

- James Harland Lockhart V

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