SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (1993) ***1/2 It's an antagonistically sappy and predictable paen to Love, Fate, and the Bermuda Triangle. The dialogue is good, but not all that sharp, the direction is smooth but hardly flawless and not particularly ambitious, the acting ranges from pretty good to almost adequate. How can this thing possibly work? Nora Ephron works the painfully predictable plot about a beat and a half behind where it should be at crucial times then brings it up fast, the incidental music is very good, the themes are individually universal, and...the film reminds you how happy you are to be alive. That's not a small accomplishment. It's almost even better that Tom Hanks oafishly blows his last big line, delivers it with less sincerity and élan than a semi-talented 4th-grader. To be fair both Hanks and Meg Ryan do very well with several of the mannerisms that their roles demand, and Ross Malinger and Gaby Hoffmann do good jobs with their parts. The worst great movie that I've ever seen.
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