OVP: Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Film: Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Stars: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, Rosie O'Donnell, Rob Reiner
Director: Nora Ephron
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Original Screenplay and Original Song ("A Wink and a Smile"))
(Not So) Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Continuing on the path of films I have seen before and caught on Saturday night, we'll get to another film that I loved WAY more than the Academy.  You'll notice that 5/5 star rating up-top, and I will fully admit that this may be a bit overboard.  I could have gone with 4/5 stars, but I didn't for a couple of reasons that we'll expound upon below that are a bit more unbiased, but there's one reason that is not scientific or completely sounded in filmic logic-I love this movie.  This is my feel-good film.  Whenever I am feeling sad about a break-up or a bad date or a rough week at work, I will whip out Sleepless in Seattle and will just find myself totally immersed in the movie.  It's to the point where I have routines with it, like a midnight showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show (there's a part of the movie where I have to have all of the lights out and am under an afghan and will silent sing Nat King Cole to no one in particular).  It's my comfort movie, so if you think this particular review is uncharacteristic, keep that in mind.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is extremely well-known, but for those of you who haven't come across this particular slice of pop culture quite yet, it's about a man from Seattle named Sam (Hanks) who has recently lost his wife to cancer, and is now raising their young son Jonah (Malinger) by himself.  Jonah, on Christmas Eve, decides to call into a radio show and ask for advice on how to deal with his father's anguish.  He is overheard across the country by a woman named Annie (Ryan) in Baltimore who becomes enamored with this man she's never met.  In a time before Facebook and Skype, she decides to track him down, becoming more and more in love with him until they finally meet in the film's final scene.

The movie borrows heavily from another of my personal favorites An Affair to Remember (in keeping with this reviewing films that I watch again that have been Oscar-nominated, it's a pretty safe assumption that this particular nugget will be on the blog within the year).  The movie follows two lovers kept apart by geography, though in the case of this particular film, they only meet in the final scene of the movie.  This actually makes the film rather unique in the annals of romantic comedies.  Ephron, who wrote and directed the film, has to trust that we the audience have pieced together that these two are perfect for each other.  We don't have any actual proof on the screen that these people have chemistry or even are romantically-matched except for what we see evidenced on paper.  Ephron has fun comparing Ryan both to Hanks' character and to his late wife, including a memorable bit with an apple.

The film is aided by a very sound set of supporting cast members who never steal away from the film, but instead continually aid in what is happening onscreen, keeping the focus squarely on Jonah, Annie, and Sam.  Rosie O'Donnell is immensely quotable as Becky-in the years before her wildly successful talk show and her controversial era on The View she was a sound comedic side player in a number of films, and is completely believable as Ryan's best friend.  The same can be said for Rob Reiner as Hanks' pal, who was a longtime friend and collaborator of Ephron's, but in this case stayed in front of the camera instead of beside her behind it.

The film's best assets, though, are the leading players.  Ryan and Hanks had intense chemistry in their three outings together, but this may have been their biggest challenge because they didn't get to rely on that chemistry, and instead have to largely project something you don't often see in a romantic comedy: loneliness.  Sleepless is unique in that way-frequently in romantic comedies we're petrified to show that single people, especially single people in their thirties, can encounter incredibly lonely situations.  Both Annie and Sam have friends, family, and in Annie's case, a fiance who adores her, and yet they're exceedingly lonely, knowing that they may be about to settle for an underwhelming life just so they aren't alone at the finish line.  You see the way that, say, Ryan's mood changes into almost a repeated speech whenever she has to discuss her fiance Walter (one of the great recurring themes is the unspoken resentment that Becky, the best friend who clearly cannot insult the future-husband, rolls her eyes every time that Annie is clearly lying about her feelings for Walter).  Annie's trying to convince herself in these scenes more than anything else.  The same can be said for Hanks when he's finding that his new girlfriend Victoria will never be the love of his life like his ex-wife, but realizes that he may have to settle so his son can have a mom.  These are topics that wouldn't normally be explored in a romance, where you're more focused on the two falling in love and overcoming some obstacle, but here the distance and their not knowing each other is the obstacle, giving us a chance to know them as individuals in a way few films have ever done, and as a result we get a more fully-realized picture of the two characters prior to the actual movie.

Those are my thoughts on what in my opinion is the best romantic comedy of the past thirty years-what are yours?  Do you clamor for Sleepless in the same way I do, and if not, what's your go-to feel-good film?  Is there any appetite out there for another go-around with Hanks/Ryan, or did that ship sail when Nora Ephron passed away?  And where does this film rank in your personal Oscar lists for writing and songs of 1993?  Share in the comments!