While You Were Sleeping

1995

Action / Comedy / Drama / Romance

58
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 79% · 62 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 79% · 100K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.8/10 10 125361 125.4K

chicago, illinois coma sibling relationship love of one's life holiday brother

Plot summary

A transit worker pulls commuter Peter off railway tracks after he's mugged, but—while he's in a coma—his family mistakenly thinks she's Peter's fiancée, and she doesn't correct them. Things get more complicated when she falls for his brother, who's not quite sure that she's who she claims to be.

Director

Jon Turteltaub Photo
Jon Turteltaub

Top cast

Sandra Bullock Photo
Sandra Bullock as Lucy
Rick Worthy Photo
Rick Worthy as Orderly
Robert Minkoff Photo
Robert Minkoff as Bit
Peter Boyle Photo
Peter Boyle as Ox
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
871.4 MB
1280*682
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 50
1.64 GB
1920*1024
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 100

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by chiltonsjillfreeport 8 / 10

They Don't Make Them Like This

Rom-coms are not my bag; 99% are utter crap. 'While You Were Sleeping' is one of, maybe, three I've ever re-watched. It's criminally low-rated here.8 great things about While You Were Sleeping:1. If you watch it again, and pay attention, you'll pick up something new. Like the whomping thud of a fall by the ice skater at the end of the Chicago winter montage opening credits.On (at least) my fourth watch, I finally realized *why* Lucy has such a thing for Peter. It's not because he's handsome, or his clothes scream money: It's crush at first sight because he looks like her father, down to the bushy black eyebrows.2. The soundtrack is sneaky-good, full of bluesy/old school R&B. Natalie Cole, Koko Taylor, Ella Fitzgerald, Lil' Ed & the Blues Imperials. Yes, it closes with a cheesy duet-but it's Daryl Hall and Dusty Springfield herself. Sign me up!3. There are scads of memorable lines and one-liners. Everyone who enjoys this movie has a favorite. I'm partial to Jack and Peter's 'you suck' exchange in the hospital chapel.4. Remember when lots of movies had real-looking people with real-looking houses, before the days when even a NYC teacher has to be drop-dead gorgeous with a $2mil loft? Only the rich lawyer in WYWS has a rich pad, and that's cool.5. The leading lady has no vanity. She never wears spike heels or shows cleavage. Lucy (Sandra Bullock) dresses like lots of women you know: jeans and baggy sweaters, boots for icy sidewalks. As Peter tells his out-going girlfriend, "Lucy is *not* a bimbo."Her hair is a mess nine scenes out of ten, and Bullock is so warm and genuine you love her for it.She's also not taking the world by storm. Lucy is funny, adorable, sentimental...and the hot dog vendor she sees every day never remembers her.6. Jack (Bill Pullman) is a woodworker! Let's just say I've known loads of craftsmen and lawyers in my professional life...and one creates things from nothing while the other largely takes things apart.Most rom-coms have 'insert hot guy here' interchangeable casting, but Pullman is perfect here: self-effacing, funny, a little scruffy, with just the right amount of gravel in his voice. He's charming, a bit snarky-and he single-handedly redeems the film's cheesiest scene by facing the camera with sudden tears in his eyes.7. You can relate to the Callaghans. If you've ever been shushed in church. If non-sequiturs and talking-over fly at the dinner table. Argentinian beef and nazis, tall actors and mashed potatoes. If there's at least one rogue grandparent or mensch friend and nobody's perfect but everyone laughs a lot. You don't have to actually be Irish. Though it helps.8. The supporting cast is pretty flawless all-around. Even the trope roles are lively. Jack Warden, Glynis Johns, Peter Boyle, Ally Walker and Peter Gallagher as a largely comatose, narcissistic, wide-eyed doofus of a one-balled squirrel-saver.In the end, WYWS is more funny than trite, a low-gloss, feel-good film with a saving grace of quirk.
Reviewed by evanston_dad 8 / 10

Sandra Bullock Charms Bill Pullman's Pants Off

It's a shame that this movie has such a low rating at IMDb, because it deserves better."While You Were Sleeping" is the kind of film that must be hard to pull off, because there aren't many of them: solid, well-written and consistently funny romantic comedies.Sandra Bullock exudes buckets of charm and a whopper of a comic presence as the heroine of this particular romance. She ably carries the movie, even when surrounded by veterans like Jack Warden, Peter Boyle and Glynis Johns.Those who are familiar with Chicago will have fun with this film, as that's where it was filmed, and you could make a game out of spotting the inconsistencies in the movie if you actually know the city it's set in.A fun movie to pop in here and there during the holiday season.Grade: A
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