While You Were Sleeping

General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1995	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	99:00 minutes	Other Extras	None
RSDL/Flipper	No, No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	2,4	Director	Jon Turteltaub
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Sandra Bullock Bill Pullman Peter Gallagher Peter Boyle Glynis Johns Jack Warden
RRP	$34.95	Music	Randy Edelman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Dolby Digital	2.0
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) French (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	No
Subtitles	English Dutch  Portuguese English for the Hearing Impaired	Annoying Product Placement	Yes, mildly
		Action In or After Credits	No

    That really is the story on offer here. Lucy Moderatz (Sandra Bullock) works as a token collector for the Chicago Transportation Authority, and every day this wonderfully handsome man, Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher) descends upon her booth in order to catch the train. Lucy is all alone in the world and longs to meet the man of her dreams and be swept off her feet - and Peter is the embodiment of that dream. An unexpected turn of events on Christmas Day sees Lucy rescue Peter from certain death under the wheels of a train after he has been accosted, whereupon Peter is taken to hospital in a coma. In order to get into the ICU to see Peter, Lucy is "mistakenly" looked upon as his fiancee, which is fine until Peter's family rocks up and things start getting complicated. Things get even more complicated when Lucy meets Peter's brother Jack (Bill Pullman) and falls in love with him. But how do you get everything straight without upsetting the family that in a few short days you have become very attached to?

    Since this is a romantic comedy, obviously everything works out in the end, but not without some entertaining episodes along the way.

    This is really a nice little film despite the somewhat limited story line. Sandra Bullock is refreshing as Lucy, although I doubt whether she has ever had any experience of being unable to find someone to share her life; it is the freshness she brings to the screen that has made her such a big star over the last six years or so. Bill Pullman is an effective partner here and they have some nice chemistry judging by the resulting film. Peter Gallagher is not one of my favourite actors but this role is so limited that even he would have trouble stuffing it up. Jack Warden almost steals the show with his performance as Peter's godfather, Saul.

    Jon Turteltaub has done a good job of pulling the whole story together and the result is an enjoyable film that gets a regular view in our household. I must have seen this a couple of dozen times and it still puts a smile on my face - and that is the highest commendation you could give a film of this nature in my view.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is quite sharp, but does have an overall slight softness to it, no doubt to emphasize the romantic nature of the film. A little clichéd and corny maybe, but it is still an effective enough technique when done right - and this is done right. Shadow detail is very good throughout.

    The colours were uniformly rendered, although this is not an especially vibrant palette. However the slightly muted look suits the location of Chicago very well indeed, as anyone who has been there in winter will attest to. The opening sequence, which is done with an orange tint, comes across very well, with nice detail, unlike the old worn out VHS tape. That is the only oversaturation of colour in the film.

    There were no MPEG artefacts nor video artefacts noted. Film artefacts were present but they were not especially noticeable and did not detract from the film.

Audio

    There are three audio tracks on the DVD, all being Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded: the default English, French and Italian. I listened to the English default.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times.

    Audio sync did not appear to be a problem with the transfer at all.

    The music score is from Randy Edelman, and a quirky score it is at times. However, it is a very complementary score that supports and contributes to the film very well.

    The surround channels were not especially well balanced and there was no action from the rear channels - but this is very much a dialogue film and this was well handled by the mix. A pity that we did not get a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack as they could have done some nice stuff with the background ambience in most scenes.

    The subwoofer got nothing sent its way during this film.
 

Menu

• Theatrical trailer

• 16x9 enhancement

    The overall video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is pretty good, although a 5.1 soundtrack would have been nice.

    Extras ............................yeah, right.

Video
Audio
Extras	what?
Plot
Overall

© Ian Morris
14th September 1999