![]() ![]() You don’t watch them because you want an airtight story you watch them for a meet-cute, a couple that’s meant to be together, and those eye-moistening moments when it seems like true love might not actually triumph.īy those standards, While You Were Sleeping is an unqualified success. But who cares? More than almost any other genre of film, romantic comedies are driven entirely by vibes. While You Were Sleeping has more plot holes than an episode of Three’s Company, and everything about it, from its cutesy voice-over narration to the forced complications that occur every ten minutes or so, are incredibly contrived. ![]() Of course, the entire thing is ridiculous on its face: Who would maintain such an obvious lie? Who would believe it? Why would Lucy think this would end in anything but disaster? Why doesn’t the story - a public servant rescues a citizen from certain death on Christmas! - not attract any media attention? Why does her boss ( Jason Bernard, a Chicago local and beloved character actor) encourage the charade, knowing it would generate nothing but bad publicity for the CTA if she were found out? Doesn’t it strike anyone as odd that Peter is engaged to the very person who was working at the train station where he took the near-fatal tumble? More than almost any other genre of film, romantic comedies are driven entirely by vibes. Accompanying him to the hospital, she meets his close-knit and loving family, and through the usual series of comical misunderstandings, they come to believe that she is his fiancée - and she takes to them so quickly that she hasn’t got the heart to correct them. Bolting out of the booth to rescue him, she saves his life, only for him to fall into a coma. Lucy works every holiday, because she has no family of her own, and one Christmas Day, she watches Peter get mugged and topple onto the tracks. Unlucky in love, she becomes obsessed with Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher, all chin, lips, and eyebrows), a handsome attorney who boards the elevated train at her stop every day, but she lacks the confidence to speak to him. Over twenty-five years later, it’s still a delightful holiday watch - not so much because of its absurd plot but because of the accumulation of details that elevate it above that silly chain of events.īriefly, While You Were Sleeping is the story of Lucy Moderatz (Bullock), a quirky, friendly young woman who works as a fare booth attendant for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). The movie immediately became a rom-com classic, celebrated by critics and audiences alike. Released in the spring of that year, only ten months after Speed made Sandra Bullock a huge star and a reliable box office draw, While You Were Sleeping cemented Bullock as America’s sweetheart of the moment and nabbed her a Golden Globe nomination - as well as nearly $200 million in profits for Buena Vista Pictures. But few, if any, ever come close to the sweet perfection of 1995’s While You Were Sleeping. Entire production companies exist just to crank out the kind of formulaic, Pinterest-friendly rom-coms that appear on the Hallmark Channel and other basic-cable zero zones every year. Romantic comedies and Christmas go together like milk and cookies. ![]()
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