Sleepwalking 2008

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Filmed mostly in winter, in browns, grays and soiled whites, Sleepwalking sustains a mood of unrelenting bleakness, wearing its aesthetic of desolation like a badge of integrity. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The movie seems unusually honest in portraying the no-option existence of the working poor, but the story slips into melodrama in the last reel. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Well-intentioned to a fault, Sleepwalking blurs the line between dramatizing free-floating misery and spreading it. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: The movie seems terrified of true psychological complexity or perversity. It's less a family tragedy than a lousy country dirge. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: Terrific performances and a bleak, riveting look at life on the economic fringes eventually gives way to an overly familiar tale of abuse, denial and catharsis that feels like warmed over Sam Shepard minus the poetry. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Charlize Theron only gets better as an actress, and she certainly wouldn't sign on to a low-budget indie such as Sleepwalking without believing in the material. The material, alas, does Theron no favors. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Despite its deficiencies, and the inadequate screen time allotted to Theron (who's quite good), Sleepwalking has a core of feeling. It's about a do-gooder who, lacking all skills for it, does good anyway. His emotional odyssey has real poignancy. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: If you had programmed a computer to come up with a movie that is nothing but a string of the deadliest indie-film situations and moods, you'd have Sleepwalking, a soporific dud, which should have been tossed out of Sundance. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Zac Stanford's screenplay works only as a theorem proving Murphy's Law. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The people never come alive, and the unremitting nastiness of the material is like being beaten with soggy towels for 90 minutes. Maybe another director and other leads might have helped. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: It's no easy task staying awake through Sleepwalking, a downbeat debut from Bill Maher (no, not that one). Only a typically intense performance from co-star Nick Stahl offers the jolt needed to keep us alert. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Beware any movie that ends with a cliche as dire as 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life.' What comes before that in Sleepwalking is relentlessly depressing. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: When you see how hopeless the lives of the American people have become in endless independent films that drive the movie audience away in mobs, you understand why the big, dumb action comics and Will Ferrell alleged comedies make all the money. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Sleepwalking stands as a heartening reminder that the future of American cinema may rest with those independent filmmakers working far from the bottom-line executives heading the shattered remnants of the old Hollywood studios. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Sleepwalking provides character arcs for its two protagonists but neither is as interesting or memorable as the performances warrant. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Sleepwalking is a frustrating case because Stahl, Robb and Theron all give performances that are subtle, delicate and smart -- it's just that they're steamrollered by the movie's relentlessness. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Sleepwalking is a slow-moving family drama guaranteed to induce a nap if not somnambulism. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: The transparently familiar issues -- abuse, unemployment, parental neglect, promiscuity -- are stapled onto characters who never seem credible. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Saddled with a title all too true to its somnambulist pace, Sleepwalking is a textbook case of a bad movie partially redeemed by good acting. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Portentous and dull, the film features one of the worst over-the-top performances by Dennis Hopper, who plays an abusive father. His role upends what could have been a mildly interesting family drama. Read more

Michelle Orange, Village Voice: Theron and Woody Harrelson (as James's party pal Randall) provide vitality against the film's heavy load, but they aren't around long enough to keep it from collapsing under its own portentous weight. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: An inert, sloppily written melodrama as grim and featureless as its frozen Midwestern setting. Read more