April 29, 2008
I watched Sleepless in Seattle with my daughter a few weeks ago, remembering it to be a funny '90s romantic comedy when Meg Ryan was still cute and and neurotic…and a flick without any objectionable content.
Well, I was sort of right. The only real objectionable content was the use of the term "ho" in relation to Tom Hanks's girlfriend, and the fact that a 9 year old boy supposedly flew from Seattle to NYC alone without a hitch (pre-911, of course. Don't they have rules about that now?).
But I only enjoyed one half of the movie: the part with Tom Hanks in it. The part with Meg was…annoying. (Thank goodness they didn't meet until the end!)
I used to love her and as many of you know, When Harry Met Sally… is one of my all-time favorite movies. She was cute in that. In Sleepless, she was trying to reprise that role and didn't do it very well, IMO. Too frenetic, too high-strung, and just not as funny.
But Tom was great.
I'd forgotten how sad that movie is, too, though. I remembered it really only being sad at the beginning, but after seeing it again with my daughter, I see that it's pretty much a tear-jerker all the way through.
Seeing the movie also reminded me of a bit of weirdness in my life that paralleled Annie's (Meg's character).
I had dated a guy seriously for years, and just around the time we were planning to get engaged, I ended the relationship.
He looked just like Bill Pullman (the guy to whom Meg Ryan's character is engaged to at the beginning of the movie)…and my Music Man, who I started dating right after breaking up with the Bill-Pullman Look Alike, at the time bore a striking resemblance to Tom Hanks (curly dark hair, strong features, dark eyes and brows). Enough that I noticed that Meg's Annie and I seemed to have parallel taste in men.
Weird huh? So I told my daughter this, and she heartily agreed that I had made the right choice.
Anyway, do you remember that movie? Have you seen it lately? Thoughts?
Did you know you can buy that houseboat that Tom Hanks's character lived in? Excuse me while I check my bank account for $2.2 million….
April 29th, 2008 at 9:32 am
I saw this a long time ago and, frankly, don’t remember much about it. I was thinking it was a comedy — so it has been a long time!!
April 29th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Well, yeah, it is a comedy really. It’s just that there’s this sad thread going through it about a father and son who’ve lost the mother…even though it’s mainly a comedy, there’s that strain that made me (a mom) all teary-eyed.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Sleepless in Seattle is a SNOOZE. When Harry Met Sally is amazing though.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Colleen, I love Sleepless in Seattle. I could never figure out how they wrote a romance where the couple meets in the last 4 minutes of the movie. It goes against all the rules of the genre, yet it works, and works beautifully.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Can’t agree with you on this one, I love Meg in Sleepless, and in When Harry, and many other roles (I.Q., Addicted to Love…) They were both fantastic in Joe vs. The Volcano. That is such an underrated classic. And I absolutely love You’ve Got Mail…the last really good Meg Ryan flick in my opinion. Outside of my youthful crush on Audrey Hepburn, Meg was my first and I’ll always love her even though she hasn’t aged gracefully and has made bad film choices of late. I’m in the mood for a Meg fest now…might have to do that really soon.
If you like the old men interaction in the movie Return to Me I highly recommend I.Q. Walter Matheau and the gang are wonderful and it is a cute little movie with no objectionable content except playful inuendo that I can remember.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:35 am
Well, Carl, you never do forget your first.
I really loved the movie when I first saw it, and even the times after…until recently. I don’t know what it was about her this time that made me annoyed.
I really enjoyed IQ–and I’d forgotten about it. I’ll definitely check it out for my daughter. And can you believe I’ve never seen Joe V. the Volcano? Will have to watch that, and You’ve Got Mail (which I’ve also never seen!!) someday.