While You Were Sleeping (1995)
This film is one of my mum’s favourites and has rightly become one of mine too. The story follows Lucy (Sandra Bullock) a young woman who has lost all her family and so lives a very lonely life by herself and has to put up with constant badgering from her Landlords son who fancies her. Working as a ticket collector at the railway station she one day catches a glimpse of a handsome man (Peter Gallagher) and promptly falls in love. Unfortunately for Lucy she hasn’t actually exchanged any words with this man and so has to made do with dreaming about their future together and hoping that one day they will actually speak! However, one Christmas – when Lucy is made to work as she is the only one with no family – this handsome man, Peter, is the victim of a group of youths and ends up falling unconscious onto the tracks and into a coma. Lucy runs to his aid and pulls him out of harms way but at the hospital the nurses pronounce Lucy as being his fiancée – much to the surprise of Peter’s entire family – and before Lucy can protest they have enfolded her into the heart of the family, inviting her to spend Christmas and New Year with them. Having spent so long on her own Lucy finds it very hard to admit the truth and so tries to convince the family that she is in fact Peter’s fiancée in order to stay in their lives. Matters don’t get any easier for Lucy when she meets Peter’s brother Jack (Bill Pullman) and feelings start to grow between the two of them, and then Peter wakes up…
This film is the perfect romcom for all ages. Even though it was made in ’95 it is still very funny and relevant to today and Sandra Bullock is made for these roles (Two Weeks Notice, The Proposal etc.). Sandra really brings out the vulnerable side to Lucy so we really feel her pain at not having any family around her any more, as well as giving her a bit of spark which really makes you like Lucy as a character. As for the leading men, they’re not quite the Ryan Gosling’s of our generation but you can see why they were liked back then. Bill Pullman in particular has a very sweet face that you could easily fall in love with.
As it is a romcom there are plenty of laughs alongside deeper moments like when Lucy admits her loneliness, and there is a lot of warmth surrounding the love given by Peter’s family to Lucy and each other. Each cast member is perfect and you will fall in love with everyone very quickly. The Grandma of the family is played by Glynis Johns who is probably best known to us as Mrs Banks from Mary Poppins! Michael Rispoli plays the Landlord’s son Joe Jnr. and is very funny in the role as he attempts to get Lucy to date him.
Overall this film is a perfect girlie film to be enjoyed at any occasion. Though it is based around Christmas it’s not so much that you can’t watch it at any time of the year. If you liked classics such as When Harry Met Sally, and You’ve Got Mail then you will love While You Were Sleeping!
