Her humorous take on the entire affair adds a necessary levity to the dark-seeded romantic origins and the relationship's distance. O'Donnell plays Annie's best friend whose sole purpose is to help her friend pursue whichever of the Handsome hero to the weakly would-be groom. Watching him in other genre films, such as the charming While You Were Sleeping, it's impressive work to transition from the Perfect foil for the grieving and much more complex Sam. Works hard to suck the life from the allergic Walter and craft a personality so dull as to be the perfect safe haven relationship for Annie and the While the entirety of the supporting cast helps bring the film together, Bill Pullman, Rosie O'Donell and Ross Malinger shine the brightest. Together, Hanks and Ryan make for a believable romanticallyįrustrated pairing, each easily moving in and out of light humor and deep introspective character drama, even as they operate independently for most Little things like her facial expressions when dealing with Walter as she dreams of Sam. Ryan works well with her character's off-kilter ways and indecisiveness in love, down to to pursue a relationship with the mystery widower instead. She first hears Sam on the radio, she can't shake the powerful, raw emotions he and his story stir inside, and she finds herself wanting - desperate She's settled for security and safety with the predictable and boring but dependable Walter. Of romance she's read about and seen in the movies. She craves more than a wheezing, allergic man who is certainly very nice but not really the stuff of love's legend, the kind Though she's engaged, she doesn't seem fully satisfied with her Ryan's character is also carefully crafted. As he returns to dating, frustrations with failed encounters with various women dampen his prospects but only reinforce the notions of true loveĪnd destiny that rise above the noise. He's at once both a tragic heroĪnd a fun loving guy who slowly emerges from his sadness as the relationship blossoms with Annie and he rediscovers the joys of true quality time Hanks shines in his role as the troubled widower, struggling to take care of his son while mourning the loss of his wife. The while building enough cheer and character goodwill to allow the eventual romance to flourish and build toward happily-ever-after. Sam and his deceased wife, presented almost exclusively off-screen and told through a grieving widower's understandable lethargy and sadness, all The film is challenged with the need to build up the relationship between Tragic event, seems an odd starting point for an otherwise light Rom-Com. The death of a wife, certainly a heartbreaking, darkly Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) is engaged to marry allergic everyman Walter (Bill Pullman)ĭrawn to Sam's story after hearing him discuss his road to revery with a call-in radio therapist. In an effort to start anew following the death of his beloved wife. The story follows a recent widower named Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) who, with his son Jonah (Ross Malinger), has moved from Chicago to Seattle Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan shine as the star-crossed lovers that are separated by distance but drawn Notions of fate with incredible depth and power. ItĬonvention - doing away with the awkward or disastrous first date, the montage depicting the characters falling in love - and settles for paralleling Borrowing part of its plot from the beloved An Affair to Remember, Director Nora Ephron's film draws its two mainĬharacters together over the course of the story and over vast distance and doesn't see them meet until the very end. It seems like millions of Rom-ComsĪnd almost universally the best use an element of fate or destiny to drive both their plots and the romances that grow from them.

The video and audio qualities of each disc A/V reviews below are based solely on this disc.ĭestiny, love, and fate: these are the ideas and connective tissues that make Romantic Comedies work so well.

Note that I do not have access to a copy of the Twilight Time disc and cannot offer a direct comparison of The film was previously released as a limited edition to the high definition format from Sony has released the timeless, fan-favorite Romantic Comedy 'Sleepless in Seattle' to Blu-ray.

Cast of sleepless in seatle