Sleepless in Seattle [10th Anniversary Edition]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Sleepless in Seattle, the sophomore directorial effort from Nora Ephron, is a light romantic comedy inspired by the 1957 film An Affair to Remember. Tom Hanks stars as widower and single father Sam. When Sam's son, Jonah (Ross Malinger), calls into a talk radio program looking for a new mother, Sam ends up getting on the phone and laments about his lost love. Thousands of miles away, Annie (Meg Ryan) hears the program and immediately falls in love with Sam, despite the fact that she has never met him and that she is engaged to humdrum Walter (Bill Pullman). Believing they are meant to be together, Annie sets out for Seattle to meet Sam, who, meanwhile, contends with an onslaught of letters from available women equally touched by his phone call. Rosie O'Donnell, Rita Wilson, and Rob Reiner also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Screen: Pan and Scan
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Features:
  • cc
  • Nora and Deliah Ephron audio commentary
  • Love in the movies featurette
  • Music video - "When I Fall in Love" by Celine Dion and Clive Griffin
  • Talent files
  • Theatrical trailers

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1993 (Nora Ephron, David S. Ward, Jeff Arch)
•     Nominated Best Song - 1993 (Marc Shaiman)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Nominated Best Score - 1993 (Marc Shaiman)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comed - 1993 (Tom Hanks)
•     Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Com - 1993 (Meg Ryan)
•     Nominated Best Picture - Musical or Comedy - 1993

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Tom Hanks - Sam Baldwin
       Meg Ryan - Annie Reed
       Bill Pullman - Walter
       Ross Malinger - Jonah Baldwin
       Rosie O'Donnell - Becky
       Gaby Hoffmann - Jessica
       Victor Garber - Greg
       Rita Wilson - Suzy
       Barbara Garrick - Victoria
       Carey Lowell - Maggie Baldwin
       Rob Reiner - Jay
       Brian McConnachie - Bob

• Director:

  Nora Ephron

• Producer:

  Gary Foster

• Screenwriter:

  Larry Atlas, Nora Ephron, David S. Ward

• Screen Story:

  Jeff Arch

• Screenwriter:

  Jeff Arch

• Cinematographer:

  Sven Nykvist

• Composer (Music Score):

  Marc Shaiman

• Editor:

  Robert Reitano

• Production Designer:

  Jeffrey Townsend

• Art Director:

  Charley Beal, Gershon Ginsburg

• Associate Producer:

  James W. Skotchdopole, Delia Ephron, Jane Bartelme

• Executive Producer:

  Lynda Obst, Patrick Crowley

• Set Designer:

  Clay Griffith, Charles Daboub, Jr.

• Costume Designer:

  Judy Ruskin

• Makeup:

  Leonard Engelman

• Camera Operator:

  Kevin Jewison

• Casting:

  Juliet Taylor

REVIEW:

• Nora Ephron's gentle romantic comedy, a throwback to the tearjerkers of the '40s and '50s, is saved from mawkishness by a combination of deft one-liners and a typically winning performance by Tom Hanks. Ephron, who made her reputation as a tough, no-nonsense journalist and author in the '60s before moving on to screenwriting, was also famous for having eviscerated her two ex-husbands in print. Whether her late-career foray into romantic comedy signaled a new-found vulnerability or a keen awareness of film industry economics, only she can say. The film uses Leo McCarey's An Affair to Remember (1957) as a touchstone, and its gossamer plot is similarly based on coincidence, as an affianced journalist (Meg Ryan) becomes enamored of an architect (Hanks) after hearing him express his love for his deceased wife on a radio call-in show. Though the film offers little in the way of surprise, Ephron was shrewd in casting Hanks, an actor whose rare ability to play both his character's melancholy and deadpan wit help to keep the project's saccharine quotient at a tolerable level. Ross Malinger, who plays his young son, also scores here, a kid with the timing and delivery of a veteran tummler. Ryan is appealing, but is saddled with a vague character defined mostly by her date with destiny. To enhance the mood the film, it features a soundtrack of love songs from earlier decades by the likes of Nat King Cole and Ray Charles, which can be enjoyed even by those who are a mite skeptical about what they've been watching. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi