Hollywood Rewind | Sleepless in Seattle: Romedy gold

Hollywood Rewind | Sleepless in Seattle: Romedy gold

Yeah, it stars Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and yes, it comes across as your regular rom-com affair. But even if you are a slightly sentimental fool on your best days, you will see Sleepless in Seattle for what it is -- a romedy classic.

Sleepless in Seattle was helmed by Nora Ephron.

Sleepless in Seattle movie cast: Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Bill Pullman, Rita Wilson, Ross Malinger
Sleepless in Seattle movie director: Nora Ephron
Sleepless in Seattle movie rating: 4.5 stars

Like books, some movies are only made to entertain us. But sometimes, a few not only engage you, but consume you too. They might be pitched as one thing, but underneath its light wings, beats a steady heart which talks about important issues like grief, love, and dealing with those feelings as life throws us a curve ball one after the other. The 1993 Nora Ephron directorial Sleepless in Seatlle falls in the second category.

Yeah, it stars Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and yes, it comes across as your regular rom-com affair. But even if you are a slightly sentimental fool on your best days, you will see the movie for what it is — a romedy classic. In how many movies has it happened that a lead actor and actress of a film stay apart from each other almost the entire duration of the feature and yet when their eyes meet, they seem to give off an electric spark; the kind Mills and Boon novels boast about? And how many times have you rooted for such a couple to be together, and feared that they might not?

Annie (a lovely Meg Ryan) is a journalist based in Baltimore, who is seemingly trapped in her engagement to Bill Pullman’s Walter. But things change when she hears on a radio an eight-year-old boy (Ross Malinger) complain about how her father Sam (Tom Hanks) has still not gotten over his wife, who died sometime ago. After hearing Sam speak about his late wife in a passionate fashion, Annie is sufficiently swooned and decides to snoop upon Sam, who has, by that time, moved to Seattle. The rest of the narrative takes off from there.

Do we ever forget the people who once had our hearts? Is it possible to really move on after a loved one passes away, and especially if that loved one is the person you spent all your days and nights with? How long does it take to heal after suffering that kind of wound? The film touches upon all these subjects, but in a manner befitting the filmmaking style of the director — deal with the tragic by suffusing it with some comedy and things will fall into place. And Ephron has proved this time and again with her films.

Marc Shaiman’s exquisite music accompanied by Ephron, Jeff Arch and David S Ward’s witty and heartwarming lines, Sleepless in Seattle is the movie you watch on a cozy off day; after an exhausting day at work and late at night when the whole world is asleep. Bottomline: Sleepless in Seattle is watch-at-any-time-of-the-day film.

Sleepless in Seattle is currently streaming on Netflix.

Source: indianexpress