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Starring: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle, Glynis Johns, Jack Warden, Monica Keena
Director: Jon Turtletaub
Producer: Roger Birnbaum
Screenplay: Fred Lebow and Dan Sullivan
Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael
Music: Randy Edelman
Released by Hollywood Pictures
Once upon a time there was a struggling young waitress called Sandra Bullock. She was pretty, intelligent and made a great cup of coffee but was fed up with waiting tables and yearned for the bright lights of Tinseltown.
So she packed her bags and headed to Hollywood, eventually landing the odd role in TV films such as The Bionic Showdown and The Preppie Murder.
Alas, they failed to make her a star and even playing the Melanie Griffith role in short lived TV series Working Girl failed to convince the moneymen that she was the next big thing. Six years of toiling on some ropy movies eventually brought her to the attention of super producer Joel (The Matrix) Silver.
He was looking for a feisty heroine for his 1993 movie Demolition Man and saw her as a suitable sidekick for Sylvester Stallone. That movie may not have busted the proverbial block but it looked great and became a suitable calling card for up-and-coming young things looking to make it big in the city of angels.
A year later, cameraman-turned director Jan DeBont was searching for a heroine of his own. His first movie, Speed was in the planning stages and the studio wanted someone a little more well known than Bullock. However, DeBont stood his ground and fought to get Sandy the role. Speed, as any casual film fan will tell you, went through the roof and turned the ex-waitress into the hottest new property of 1994.
Suddenly producers were falling over themselves to hire her - and not just for coffee making duties.
One of the first films out of the traps was While You Were Sleeping, a charming romantic comedy in which she plays Lucy, a lonely train-station attendant with a nice line in self-deprecating humour: "I'm a lot like my dad," she remarks. "Brown hair, flat chest."
She's horrified when the handsome commuter she admires from afar is mugged on the platform. With the unwitting love of her life in a coma, she accompanies him to hospital, where a mix-up prompts the man's family to mistake her for his fiancee.
That is just the start of her problems, however, as she begins to fall for the victim's brother. Good support comes from Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher and Peter Boyle while director Jon Turteltaub (maker of last year's woeful Anthony Hopkins drama Instinct) keeps things ticking over with a rare lightness of touch.
The movie was made at the knockdown price of $17million and went on to gross $182million worldwide. Not a bad return for a project devoid of special effects and A-list stars. Admittedly it's a very formulaic piece, no doubt inspired by the success of previous hit Sleepless in Seattle. As with that movie, the soundtrack is filled with a host of old fashioned classics such as Winter Wonderland, Let it Snow (used far more effectively in Die Hard) and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
It's not a perfect motion picture by any means as Bullock's range is limited but she has a winning smile that could melt the coldest heart. It also seems a little strange that the family is a little too happy for a clan whose son is in a coma.
But why carp? This is a welcome, old fashioned flick that will warm the cockles.
As for Sandra Bullock? Well, she's still making hit movies in la la land and has no less than four new films in the pipeline.
Miss Congeniality, Exactly 3.30, Gun Shy and 28 Days should boost her bank balance no end ensuring that she really does live happily ever after.
© 2000 Roger Crow
