While You Were Sleeping
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| While You Were Sleeping | |
|---|---|
 One-sheet promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Jon Turteltaub |
| Produced by | Roger Birnbaum Joe Roth |
| Written by | Daniel G. Sullivan Fredric LeBow |
| Starring | Sandra Bullock Bill Pullman Peter Gallagher Peter Boyle Jack Warden |
| Music by | Randy Edelman Diane Warren |
| Cinematography | Phedon Papamichael |
| Editing by | Bruce Green |
| Distributed by | Hollywood Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 21, 1995 |
| Running time | 103 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $18,000,000 (estimated) |
| Gross revenue | $81,057,016 (domestic) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
While You Were Sleeping is a 1995 romantic comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub and starring Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman and Peter Gallagher. The script was written by Daniel G. Sullivan and Frederic Lebow.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Sandra Bullock plays Lucy Ellenore Moderatz, a lonely fare collector on the Chicago elevated railway. The highlight of her days is selling a token to a handsome commuter, Peter Callaghan (played by Peter Gallagher), on whom she has a secret crush. Working on Christmas day, Lucy witnesses Peter being mugged and pushed onto the tracks, and she rescues him from an oncoming train. Peter falls into a coma and she accompanies him to the hospital, where she fantasizes aloud, "I was going to marry him". A nurse overhears her and, misinterpreting the situation, tells the head physician, a policeman and Callaghan's family that Lucy is his fiancée. At first Lucy is too caught up in the madness of everyone's panic to tell the truth, and after that she is too embarrassed to.
An orphan with few friends, she becomes so captivated with the quirky Callaghans and their unconditional love for her, that she cannot bring herself to hurt them by revealing that Peter doesn't even know her. She spends a delayed Christmas with the family so "they can get to know each other". Lucy then meets Peter's younger brother Jack (Bill Pullman), who has taken over his father's business and is always working. Jack is very suspicious at first, saying Peter never mentioned Lucy or a marriage, which is not like him. Later on, after spending some time together to get acquainted, Jack starts to realize that he himself has feelings for Lucy.
Then complications arise. Peter wakes up, not remembering Lucy at all, but by this time the rest of the Callaghan family has become so enamored with Lucy that they all naturally assume that Peter must have amnesia. Forced by his family, Peter and Lucy spend time together, while Lucy doesn't know how to tell them the truth, especially now that she has fallen in love with Jack. Peter is convinced by Saul (Peter and Jack's godfather, who knows about Lucy's secret) that Lucy must be his true love if he really proposed to her, so he does it "again". Lucy freaks out by the unexpected questions and agrees. Lucy confides in the kindly Saul, who believes that Lucy belongs in the family. Yet the elderly widower can't bring himself to tell the family about Lucy either. Lucy forces herself to be happy; she's with the man she wanted to be with her whole life.
The day before the wedding, Jack visits her to give her a present - a snowglobe of Florence, Italy, the place that she has always wanted to go to. As he leaves, Lucy asks him if he could give her any reason why she shouldn't marry Peter. Whereas in fairy tales the man would say at this point, "I am the one who wants to marry you," Jack hesitates before saying that he cannot give a reason, and angrily leaves.
On the day of the wedding, Lucy starts to feel more and more guilty over her lie and her feelings for Jack, when it's actually Peter she's marrying. She walks down the aisle, where Peter is waiting with Jack, who is his best man. The priest begins, but during the words "Dearly beloveds, we're gather here today...", Lucy suddenly objects. Jack is surprised and objects too. She tells the family who she is and what went wrong in the hospital. She tells the parents she's fallen in love with their son, but points out that it's not Peter, but Jack. Also showing up to object to the union is Ashley, Peter's real fiancee, whom the family learns also happens to be married. As the family argues, Lucy leaves, unsure of her future.
We see Lucy on her last day of work at the station. As she accepts tokens from passengers, an engagement ring falls through the toll window. When Lucy looks up, she sees Jack and his family standing. Jack passes the token collection line and proposes to Lucy.
The film ends with the two happily married in wedding attire, on the back of a train departing from the station, complete with a sign reading "Just Married".
[edit] Production
Demi Moore originally had secured the part of Lucy, however Sandra Bullock expressed her own interest in the film, stating that she could relate to the character because she felt she had similarities. Moore was immediately replaced by Bullock.[citation needed]
[edit] Location
Part of the movie was filmed at the Lake Point Tower building. State/Lake Station was used for exterior shots of the 'L'. Also in the suburb, La Grange.
[edit] Response
The film performed very well and was a hit, grossing $9,288,915 on its opening weekend and a total of $182,057,016 internationally for its entire theatrical run[1]. It was the fifth-highest grosser of 1995 in the United States[2]. This film, along with Speed, are credited as having launched Sandra Bullock into stardom.
[edit] Goofs
When Lucy is going through Peter's personal effects, she finds a can of cat food, one that can only be opened by a can opener. Later when she feeds the cat, it is now a 'pull-open' can.
[edit] References
- Janet Maslin. "The Blossoming of a Wallflower." The New York Times. April 21, 1995. C16.
