Movie: Sleepless in Seattle
Year: 1993
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Director: Nora Ephron
Stars: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan and Ross Malinger

Snapshot of Story:
‘Sleepless in Seattle’ is an enchanting romantic story about a man who had lost his wife through cancer and has a young boy who calls a popular radio show requesting a wife for his dad.

Review of Sleepless in Seattle

Storyline:
The story was a big hit at its time due to the simple charming story and the screen presence of both stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. In fact the two went onto make another hit movie called ‘You Got Mail’.

Meg Ryan in her usual boyish but feminine way plays Annie Reed who is engaged to Walter (Bill Pullman) but is desperately looking for more in their relationship. She overhears the radio broadcast of Sam Baldwin and his son while driving back from New York and is captivated by the sad story of the father and son. The entire event is instilled in her mind and she discusses this with her best friend Suzy the next day. In the meantime, the radio show stirred up much interest from all of the Seattle folks in particular from women who sent invitations for marriage.

Annie is unable to shake the strange fascination and attraction for Sam and at one time continues to write a letter to Sam in front of her best friend in which she crumples it up and throws it into the garbage bin. Back in Seattle, Sam is inundated with letters that are now coming in sacks and while Sam refuses to read them, the boy Jonah Baldwin reads some of them with great excitement. Sam insists that the traditional approach to dating where couples meet and have drinks and dinner are the best form of attaining a partner. However, the recent event of the radio show spurs him to pull out his old telephone book and call some of his past female friends to see if he can rekindle some of the lost romanticism since the loss of his wife.

It was clear that Sam could not forget his wife who was shown appearing in one of the scenes where he was laying down to sleep. Despite his bereavement and lack of sleep, Sam continues to do his daily job as an architect and comes to learn that all his friends and colleagues have come to know about the radio show.
Jonah and his school friend come across one letter and talks about a rendezvous in the Empire State building during Valentine’s day. He is taken back by this letter and believes that this is the woman for his father and shows this to him who dismisses it as nothing important.

Sam continues to receive words of encouragement from his colleagues and friends as they learn of the radio show. One evening where Sam meets up with a good friend and his wife for dinner, he mentions the letter that his son spoke of and the wife is able to relate the meeting in the empire state building to an old movie by Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr called ‘An Affair to Remember’. This sets the tone for the remainder of the movie.
After a few missed opportunities and unexpected twists and turns Sam finally ends up at the Empire State building on Valentine’s day and meets Annie during that fateful moment.

Final Thoughts:
Although there were no actual screen romanticism on the part of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in this movie it was nevertheless a good rendition of how two different people portrayed in their independent lifestyles can make a fitting couple. This thought was left to the imagination of the audience and the same technique applied in the later movie by the two stars called ‘You have Mail’. The movie is a one-time viewing that is very heart warming, entertaining and watchable.

Rating:
7.5/10