Sleepwalking (2007/Overture/Anchor Bay DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: C+     Film: C+

 

 

William Maher’s Sleepwalking (2007) is a mixed-bag drama about a mother (Charlize Theron) and daughter (Ann Sophia Robb) that is in trouble and gets worse as both find themselves in their own trouble.  When the mother leaves home and town, caring uncle (Nick Stahl) steps in to help, but some of that backfires resulting in some traumatic events.  More often than not, the characters and performances work.

 

The main problem is that screenplay writer Zac Stanford (The Chumscrubber) has troubles when trying to deal with the young female role, sometimes inadvertently presenting her in male terms that border on misogyny (unintentional we suspect) undermining the overall flow of the story and giving us a conclusion that does not add up and in some ways makes no sense.  Woody Harrelson and Dennis Hopper make memorable appearances, but once this starts to go off-track, it never finds its way back.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is better than the 1.33 X 1 full frame bore also included and may cost the widescreen version in detail and depth by hogging up unnecessary space.  The motion blur is another issue, but Director of Photography Juan-Ruiz Anchia, A.S.C., makes this look real enough and it is not a bad shoot overall.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix surprisingly weak with a poor soundfield, problematic dialogue playback and this also hurts Christopher Young’s decent score.  This was also issued on Blu-ray and we hope to see it that way to see if this plays back netter that way.  Extras include the trailer and a making of featurette.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo