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Sleepwalking

Review By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

Sleepwalking is not, like I assumed before seeing it, a horror movie. You know, one involving a little kid who always sleepwalks, who sees visions of people dying that he thinks are dreams, but then they really do die a week later – something like that. Instead I got a frequently thoughtful, low-key little drama notable for its complete lack of sleepwalking. Well, in a literal sense.

There is a kid, but it’s the accomplished AnnaSophia Robb, but she already got the creepy-kid role out of the way in last year’s The Reaping. Here, she’s Tara, an eleven-year-old girl with a deadbeat mother Joleen (Charlize Theron, who also produced this) whose boyfriend just got busted for drugs. Since they lived with him, suddenly they have nowhere to go and turn to James (Nick Stahl), Joleen’s brother. But then Joleen takes off, and uncle and niece are stuck with each other.

Unfortunately James’s life isn’t too great itself – he works construction but has called in sick too much for back pain and frequently arrives late. He’s behind on rent. Things continue on their downward course until it seems like the story could reach its logical end by the half-hour mark – but then he and Tara realize they both desperately want to get out of their current situations, and take off down the road together.

As a character study, Sleepwalking is above average, consistently illuminating the backstories and personalities of the characters with impressive subtlety and subtext. The whole “let’s go on a road trip” method of character life-healing has certainly been done before, but contrary to Little Miss Sunshine and its ilk, James and Tara aren’t merely assigned a couple of neat quirks.

What’s more, screenwriter Zac Stanford can be applauded for not taking the easy routes of (a) creating a weird and uncomfortable sexual dynamic between the two, or (b) simply making James a surrogate father to Tara. Even by the end of their story, you still get the impression that he’d be pretty helpless at raising her.

Instead, this is simply the story of two lonely people who help each other out for a little while just by providing some company and guidance to the other. The lack of any significant twists or even plot points might bore some less patient audience members, and it would be hard to disagree with them: scenes can often feel ponderous or unnecessary (although even in those cases the actors tend to sell it). But in its own quiet way, when