Cinema de Gym: 'While You Were Sleeping'
Friday, August 26, 2011 at 5:44PM 
Kurt here. This week saw the rare screening of a romantic comedy at the gym. The film was While You Were Sleeping, Sandra Bullock's first effort following her bomb-on-a-bus breakthrough. An extremely nice movie with minimal ambitions, its key function was to introduce the world to Bullock: Girl Next Door, soon to be Bullock: Queen of Ubiquity. Seen retrospectively, it's a major career indicator. Even the first 20 minutes – which are the minutes I saw – are teeming with the Bullockisms that Americans have been gorging themselves on since the film's 1995 release. Bullock is Lucy, a ticket booth operator at a Chicago train station who has many of the traits we've come to know so well: unlucky-in-love aura, frumpiness that barely hides her beauty (unkempt hair, choppy bangs, oversized sweaters), unladylike behavior (she dips her Oreos in her cat's milk), peripheral support system of surrogate family members, and an everyday earnestness so complete it seems exhausting. There's even a calories-be-damned mention of the local Chinese food guy, a la Two Weeks Notice.
I've never had the pleasure of an end-to-end While You Were Sleeping sit, but as I and most of you know, this is a Big Secret movie hinged on a well-intended lie that will surely come out in the wash at the close of the second act. Lucy is nuts about Peter (Peter Gallagher), the dapper businessman who visits her window each day but barely knows she exists. When he's mugged and tossed onto the tracks, Lucy saves the day and rushes his comatose behind to the hospital, only to have her out-loud thoughts of marriage get her mistaken for his fiancée (or, as the fib-spreading nurse memorably repeated in the TV spots, his "FEEE-ahn-say"). In a charming bit of farcically contrived, old fashioned group hysteria, Peter's family fawns over Lucy after funneling into the hospital room, wholly believing and embracing the made-up engagement news as a desperate means to relieve some alluded-to family drama. As is typical, Lucy is too overwhelmed – and far too kindhearted – to wreck the mood and spill the truth.
A joy of the earlier scenes is seeing the many older actors who play Peter's relatives, at least a couple of whom are no longer with us. The late, great Peter Boyle is Peter's father (Peters, Peters, everywhere); character actor Jack Warden, who passed in 2006, is Peter's godfather; and Glynis Johns, who's still going strong at 87, is Peter's grandmother. The latter, who was indeed the one and only Winifred Banks in Mary Poppins ("votes for women!"), is at the center of the earlier portions' best jokes. Suffering from a heart condition that's been troubling the fam, she's the key reason Lucy needs to keep up her act. "When my mom found out I wasn't getting married, her intestines exploded," says Lucy's co-worker and lunch partner (Jason Bernard). "If you back out now, you may as well shoot grandma." The biggest laugh comes when the relatives arrive at the hospital one morning to find that Lucy spent the night with her faux beau. Abruptly and inexplicably, the godfather, addressing Lucy, says of the grandmother, "You're like her – she can sleep anywhere. And believe me, she has."
Such a nasty little zinger sticks out like a scarlet letter in this squeaky-clean star vehicle. Most of the time, we're awash in Lucy's goodness, and asked to nibble our nails as that goodness pulls her deeper into uncharacteristic dishonesty. Of course, what ends up happening is Lucy falls for Peter's brother, Jack (Bill Pullman), while Peter's conked out, but I didn't make it that far. What I did see was a sweet bedside confessional that Lucy offers to Peter, a gooey romcom monologue that really showcases Bullock's then-blossoming powers. With an almost impossible cuteness, she exudes mainstream-friendly desperation and self deprecation, which somehow seems both put-on and very true at the same time. You can see the career of a lovable superstar taking shape in that moment. It's no wonder Lucy's earnestness became a career staple. Bullock's so good at it, she does it too well.
Conclusions?
1. For a while, it seemed Bullock was destined to star alongside vehicles: Bus (Speed), Train (While You Were Sleeping), Boat (Speed 2). It's totally a metaphor for her meteoric rise. Faster than a speeding Bullock!
2. During that same time, it also seemed she was destined to share the screen with Jacks: Keanu Reeves in Speed (Jack), Jeremy Northam in The Net (Jack), Bill Pullman in While You Were Sleeping (Jack).
3. Revisiting a film from the early days of a star's career can reflect a lot in terms of how said star's career panned out.
4. If you really want to make it as a leading lady in Hollywood, it might not be a bad idea to act opposite Sister Suffragette.
Do you like early Bullock? Or will you never get over that Oscar win?
Reader Comments (13)
i really like her in this movie and THE NET:it's just it.Basically she has a career because she looks likeable
I LOVE early Bullock and NOW Bullock. And I especially LOVE her 1st Oscar WIN. More noms and wins to come starting with Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Gravity!
^ That is so weird. Not because you feel that way, but because you're the only person I've ever heard say that hahah.
I do want more nominations because she's super talented and the Oscar win gives her a chance to do better work. Like Gravity sounds so freaking awesome.
Jack Warden is the best. That's right, "is." Even though he's dead. His awesomeness transcends the grave.
If I recall correctly, the godfather has a lot of random amusing lines in this movie, like saying that Shemp is his favorite Stooge and calling Peter a putz.
I remember seeing her on one of the first Vanity Fair Hollywood covers...I think she was on the last page of the pull-out. I would've never thought she would be the one to survive through the years and then win an Oscar!
Bia -- i know! Although I will admit when this movie came out I fell hard for her. It was the peak of my Sandra love, right there at the beginning. Bu While You Were Sleeping puts this era's romantic comedies to shame so that helps.
Kurt -- GLYNIS JOHNS. thanks for giving her a shout out. So underappreciated these days and she's always a delight. Not just in Mary Poppins.
It's a shame you didn't get to the end if only because the best of Glynis Johns was yet to come. Her bit at the end with the camera is just gold.
An essential movie I never saw.
WYWS is a wonderful film, and Bullock is an underrated actress. Props to her for keeping her sparkle despite all the crap she's been thrown. (Hell, she even asked in her Oscar speech if she'd worn everyone down enough to get her the win.) There isn't a perf from her yet that I would have handed an Oscar, but she's a wonderful talent and the potential is there. She elevates her often lesser material on a regular basis (including in The Blind Side). I also can't help but respect the fact that she left the industry when she didn't find what she wanted, rather than producing the crap she was being handed. Kate Hudson should take notes.
I will never get over that Oscar win.
I like bullock in whatever she is in and like the fact she took stock and tried acting a la infamous and crash,even though she has ltd range she is damn watchable and likeable something julia stopped being in 1993!!!
I have always liked her and think she is an excellent comedienne and at times a good if not extraordinary dramatic actress. I'm a fan of WYWS and agree with the rest that Glynis Johns was priceless in the film as she was in many others, I've always been particularly fond of The Court Jester and All Mine to Give. Now there's somebody who should have an Oscar!! As far as early vs. later Sandra it's hard to say since hers is a very uneven career, some of the early stuff like Speed and WYWS is terrific but mixed in with a lot of junk and so it goes with her later films, The Proposal may not have been great cinema but she and Ryan Reynolds made it fun but All About Steve was awful and she was dreadful in it. It's not that I begrudge her an Oscar, although I've yet to see anything that would or should have won her one, it's the cheating of the truly worthy nominee. I have to say in her year there was no one who I felt was so sensational that they were robbed like Judy Garland was the year Grace Kelly, another competent but not superior talent, was awarded for the pedestrian The Country Girl. But while I thought The Blind Side was entertaining and she was fine in it all the other actress in her category gave richer performances.
So glad the comments are well thought out and presented. Sandra has had Oscar worthy moments in several films. "WYWS" where she cries at the wedding and admits she fell for Peter's family. "Hope Floats" where she handles a moment during a job interview, so delicately. "Crash" where she claims on the phone with a friend "I am so angry and I don't know why", as well as when she hugs her housekeeper tightly realizing she is her best friend. Finally, she really did a fine job in "The Blindside." An Oscar win on the shoulders of a long career . Sandra is underrated, mostly due to the material she has chosen. I anxioulsy await her performances in "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," and "Gravity." I also admire how she handles her career. Showing up for the Razzie and giving a long acceptance speech. Never alienating audiences with divisive comments like the time Julia Roberts spoke at a Democratic fund raiser and claimed, "Republicans are listied in the dictionary right after reptiles." Sandra also never over exposes herself. She is not launching clothing lines or fragrances, or doing commercial work. She steps away from the public eye, and returns usually at a time when audiences are ready to see her again. She is the Kate Hepburn of our era.