Sleepwalking (2008)

James 'Speedy' Reedy (Nick Stahl) takes in his sister Joleen (Charlize Theron) and her daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) after Joleen's boyfriend Warren gets caught growing pot. Joleen takes off with another guy. James is a hopeless slacker. He loses his job after missing work trying to find Joleen for Tara's sake. Social services puts Tara into foster care. James move into the basement of his friend Randall (Woody Harrelson). Tara runaways from her foster parents and James takes her on a road trip ending up back home with his cruel father (Dennis Hopper) on his rundown farm.There is a bit of misdirection. This turns out to be Nick Stahl's movie and his sleepwalking through his troubled life. His character is very inert in contrast to the more intriguing Charlize Theron. She doesn't get to interact with the other characters for most of the movie. AnnaSophia Robb tries to play the wild child character with mixed results. Dennis Hopper turns into a crazy character which puts to question why James would go back home. The depressed tone drags the story down despite its strong cast.

I live in Puerto Rico and have submitted reviews before under my earlier email address."Sleepwalking" is a powerful, disturbing movie. It is not a fun movie to see. It is a movie about coming of age or finding out what makes us fear and want to repress our dirty little secrets. I am in a twelve-step program for an addiction. Seeing this movie was as good as going to a group meeting where we share our strength, hope and experience. "Sleepwalking" is about soul searching. It is about accepting reality and not living in denial about our life's experience.I seldom laughed or even smile during this movie until the very end. It almost depressed me because it reminded me of my dishonest life before I got honest with myself.There are four key characters: (1) A father who is cruel and abusive to those who are his loved ones. (2) His daughter who hangs on to the cruel past and does not know how to let go of her resentments against her father in order to enjoy the present. (3) The daughter's timid brother who refuses to honestly examine, face and accept the reality of his past; and therefore, he is unable to have the desire to face his present or future.(4) The daughter's very young, confused and angry daughter who is caught in a trap between her mother's living in the past and her uncle's refusal to accept the present and is afraid to face his future.I don't expect this movie to be a box office success. However, I expect this movie will stimulate many to do our own soul searching. I was a lot like the brother who always denied the truth about his father and did want to confront any of the important issues of living in reality.I would like to add the following comment to my earlier review:Puerto Rico, where I live, is truly an "Enchanted Island." It is colorful and joyful. The people, the scenery and the climate make you feel alive and happy. Puerto Rico also has constant playing of all kinds of Latin music. Puerto Ricans are gifted to appreciate music. They love to sing and dance. They also excel in the visual arts. I actually love and enjoy viewing some of the graffiti in Puerto Rico. I think some of it should be on display in the great art museums of the world.In "Sleepwalking" the scenery and climate could not have been more dull, barren and depressing. There are boring, depressing highways that go for miles without any beautiful scenery. Every location in "Sleepwalking" is flat, dreary and depressing. This added to the disturbing impact of the movie. The people who live in the area of the movie are colorless, dull and depressing. I have noted this lack of beauty and joy in other art films made in the plains just east of the Rockie. Or was this dreariness in the far west? Was it in Utah? I would go out of my mind if I lived in the location of the filming of "Sleepwalking." Boy! I am delighted that I live in Puerto Rico the "Enchanted Island." At the age of eighty, Puerto Rico makes me want to live life with carefree joy. It is difficult to get depress on this bubbling island of colorful living

Despite the mostly negative reviews I've read about 'Sleepwalking', I wanted to see if Annasophia Robb really did live up to what the critics have been raving the past couple months. And she does, in a huge way. With a natural presence and believable acting, Annasophia displays one of the best performances I've seen from a child actor/actress. While she did a great job in BTT and Have Dreams, she doesn't show any signs of the occasional stiff acting that she had in her previous films. Playing the part of the abandoned and emotionally troubled Tara is a very complex process that not many young actors can endure, yet Annasophia portrays her every emotion smoothly. Her chemistry with Stahl's character was convincing and heartfelt. At first I was a little bit on the skeptical side on whether or not her performance was Oscar-worthy; but after watching this movie, I immediately brushed said thoughts aside.That said, this movie is James's (Nick Stahl) story, and he delivers. His performance really brought out the raw emotion that most of the film lacked. At certain scenes one could just sense the extreme pain and sorrow that James is going through as he grows more fond of his niece, only to see her get taken away, that and other aspects of his character makes a nice buildup to his climactic transformation near the end. Charlize Theron, though only present in a handful of scenes in the film, takes full advantage of them and helps create a truly believable troubled American family. Dennis Hopper is, well...Dennis Hopper. He can pull off playing any crazed and sadistic bastard in a snap and succeeds. Despite his character being as one dimensional as one can get, Hopper does a pretty good job making the film more morbid than it already is.Positives aside, here is where the film gets it's real flaws: the story. Besides extremely powerful performances by the leads, Sleepwalking's story suffers from it's overtly dark tone and predictability. Yes, it's supposed to be a morbid take on abandonment and abuse, but unfortunately that's all there is. The characters stumble from one unlucky bump in the road to another without any real relief for them. Besides the budding almost brother-sister type relationship that James and Tara develops, it doesn't really stop the film from becoming increasingly bleak. And quite honestly, as much as I tried to defend it, I didn't understand James's notion to return to his abusive and bitter father's farm. Once he mentions going there in the film, especially with all the comments that he heard from Tara, predicting hell in Satan's frozen ranch wasn't very far-fetched. I enjoy films that are open to interpretation and don't give out easy answers. However, Sleepwalking's ending hardly even tries to put some sort of resolution. It's an all-throughout morbid storyline that DESERVED a true resolution, sadly it barely had one.I enjoyed Sleepwalking. I loved the characters and the performances (Especially Robb and Stahl), but like the ratings that you've read throughout the web, it was just barely enough to carry the weight of a bland and predictable story.

The pacing of this movie is a little slow. There were times when i almost gave up on it, and wanted to stop watching it, but didn't. I am glad i finished this movie because there is something so honest, and pure about the subject matter.What's great about this movie is it's not flashy like people think movies need to be. It is not over the top, not glamorous. This movie is striped to the bare essence of what it takes to make a good film or better, great acting, and a genuine story line.The movie has a slow start, but a rapid ending that leaves you wanting more. The characters are really well developed. I feel a close connection to all of them. I feel like they are real people, and that's unusual to feel when watching a movie.It's a movie about choices, about how one moment can change your life. The decisions we make are not always right, most of them are made on impulse, but we still have to deal with the aftermath, and learn a lesson along the way.