Rating: A-
I last rewatched this epic 1993 romance on Easter weekend, when TV2 was running old movies all day for the public holidays, and to be honest, it was as good as when I watched it the first time.
90s movie romance power couple Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are the two leads in Sleepless in Seattle, a film about heartbroken widower Sam (Hanks), who is forced onto late night radio by his son Jonah, who is convinced he needs to get out and date again. Annie (Ryan) is one of the hundreds of women who hear Sam open up on the radio, and falls in love right then and there. True love ensues, save for the fact that Annie is actually engaged to a drip called Walter and is a reporter in Chicago, while Sam has just moved to Seattle and doesn’t sleep all that much (Hence the title…Sleepless in Seattle).
While shamelessly predictable in both plot and characterisation, director Nora Ephron serves up every course of romantic references and imagery to sweep you up in the (let’s face it, pretty unlikely) plot despite its clichéd territory. References to Leo McCarey’s sentimental 1957 classic “An Affair to Remember” bring every woman in the film to tears, and provides the kind of all encompassing, absurdist sentimentality that wraps you up in Sleepless in Seattle’s warm and fuzzy filmic arms and makes you want Sam and Annie to be together forever.
Both Hanks and Ryan are young, attractive, and deliver quality performances to carry the film’s familiar plot. Hanks gives real depth to grieving dad Sam, and in classic romantic-comedy style is both heartfelt and funny, making a nice change from the heavier roles we have seen of him in the past. Conversely, Ryan brings a tenderness and vulnerability to Annie, somehow making her last minute ditching of poor Walter totally ok, and as her cynicism towards impossible romance is broken down through the course of the film, so is the audiences.
I have watched Sleepless in Seattle too many times already, and would watch it again in a heartbeat. While exploring little else other than the journey of true love, this film will bring out all the hopelessly romantic tendencies in anyone who watches, and is the perfect flick for a rainy Sunday afternoon.