Sleepwalking (2007/Overture/Anchor Bay DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: C+
Film: C+
William
Maher’s Sleepwalking (2007) is a
mixed-bag drama about a mother (Charlize Theron) and daughter (Ann Sophia Robb)
that is in trouble and gets worse as both find themselves in their own
trouble. When the mother leaves home and
town, caring uncle (Nick Stahl) steps in to help, but some of that backfires
resulting in some traumatic events. More
often than not, the characters and performances work.
The main
problem is that screenplay writer Zac Stanford (The Chumscrubber) has troubles when trying to deal with the young
female role, sometimes inadvertently presenting her in male terms that border
on misogyny (unintentional we suspect) undermining the overall flow of the
story and giving us a conclusion that does not add up and in some ways makes no
sense. Woody Harrelson and Dennis Hopper
make memorable appearances, but once this starts to go off-track, it never finds
its way back.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is better than the 1.33 X 1 full frame
bore also included and may cost the widescreen version in detail and depth by
hogging up unnecessary space. The motion
blur is another issue, but Director of Photography Juan-Ruiz Anchia, A.S.C.,
makes this look real enough and it is not a bad shoot overall. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix surprisingly weak
with a poor soundfield, problematic dialogue playback and this also hurts
Christopher Young’s decent score. This
was also issued on Blu-ray and we hope to see it that way to see if this plays
back netter that way. Extras include the
trailer and a making of featurette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
