Customer Reviews

Chasing Sleep [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This movie contains echoes of Edgar Allen Poe's "Telltale Heart," and also perhaps a few suggestions of the cult movie "Eraserhead." In all three works, the protagonist inhabits a house that becomes more and more animate. The plumbing growls and knocks and oozes strange effluents. There are ever-growing spots on the walls and ceiling. There is something on (or under) the floor.

But this is an essentially realistic rather than a surrealistic portrayal of a man trapped - in either his own imaginings or else in some actual, eerie conspiracy of natural phenomena. Jeff Daniels gives a tour de force performance as the man who reports his wife missing, and who then spirals down into a gnawing, insomniac worry that she may have met with foul play.

This movie becomes especially intriguing in light of all the recent publicity given to men suspected of murdering their wives. We think of Lacy Peterson and all the others as we watch Daniels' increasingly bleary and disoriented response to the police, to the outside world in general. Is he just being consumed with fear about what might have happened to his wife? Or is it a guilty conscience that is corroding him? The movie kept me guessing - until very near the end.

If you're expecting a typical thriller upon viewing Chasing Sleep, you're going to be extremely surprised by this powerful work. When I first saw Chasing Sleep during a recent visit to France, I was blown away. Weaving a complex story with sparse dialogue and fantastic cinematography, the film is like a David Lynch work filtered through a less frenetic David Fincher lens.

The film, which starts with the simple premise that a man can't fall asleep after his wife fails to return from work one day, combines numerous genre elements with great success. It ranges from realistic drama to surreal science fiction, with some horror, thriller, and action jimmies thrown in.

The talent behind this film is amazing. The highly underrated Jeff Daniels plays the central character, Ed Saxon, a discombobulated college professor whose life is falling apart at the same rate as his house. He brings a silent force to his character that leaves the viewer unclear as to his true state of mind and motives. Director Michael Walker forges a world unlike any other captured on film, using cold colors and shadows to paint a depressing portrait of self-imposed exile. The directory of photography allows powerful images to linger on the screen just long enough to be burned into your memory.

No other film that I have seen has spawned as much post-viewing conversation as Chasing Sleep. The details of the events that transpire during the course of the story allow an immense amount of personal interpretation, and fuels speculation as to what Bridges' Saxon really was capable of. The fact that this film was never given a theatrical release in the US certainly sours my perspective of American taste in film.

Although the movie has been credited as being rather slow to reach the climax and there's a lack of constant dialogue it's exactly what makes for an amazing atmosphere and creates an amazing tension that constantly keeps you guessing, thinking and wondering.

(3.5/5 stars) This film reminds me of Le Locataire, Roman Polanski's superb thriller about a man slowly succumbing to his neuroses and descending into madness. Most of the story takes place inside one home and the pacing is slow and deliberate, so it might not appeal to all tastes. Fans of Kafka and Polanski, however, are likely to find much of interest here. Jeff Daniels is quite good as Ed Saxon, a professor at a local college. He phones the police early one morning to report his wife missing and with their help he begins to unravel the mystery of her disappearance. The story unfolds from Saxon's point of view, so the viewer really knows as little as he does. Eventually, however, it becomes very apparent to the viewer that Saxon should be cognizant of more than he is. It is always fun to watch psychologically damaged individuals become unhinged in movies because reality becomes contemptuously and surreally distorted, though no one actually gets hurt. Worth watching at lease once.

Showtime really did me in - I didn't realize this was their idea of a halloween movie flick! I didn't mean to watch it, but the movie guide called it a 'suspense' and I kept waiting for tell-tale suspense stuff I guess. When it didn't happen, I found myself standing in front of the TV before I finally realized I could sit and watch. After a bit it was so intense I could barely watch. A perfect halloween night movie.

This is an extraordinary film. An atmosphere of profound terror is created by a brillant mixture of fine acting, sparse but incisive screenplay, and hallucinatory cinematography. As a longtime devotee to the horror genre, I must give this intense experience the highest rating.

Yeah, yeah, call it a David Lynchian thriller, but Chasing Sleep is definitely Lynch Lite, with a dash of The Sixth Sense thrown in. The "surprise" ending isn't really that surprising and the water-and-rusting-pipes imagery (a surefire metaphor for the slowly imploding mind of the main character) is definitely overused. A few good moments, though (most of the surreal beginning) but some laughable scenes as well (the rotting giant baby in the bath tub and a caterpillar-like, squirming severed finger). All in all, if you crave some creepy stuff, buy Session 9 instead.

"Chasing Sleep" is titled in France as "Insomnies" and that fact will let you know enough what the film is all about. But unlike the Norwegian thriller (and its Hollywood remake) of the same name, "Chasing Sleep" is less like a thriller than a character study even though there is elements of thriller in it. Perhaps it is this mislead expectations of mine that made me feel disappointed at the film.

The film follows the central character, Jeff Daniel's Ed Saxon, whose life heavily suffers from insomnia which started when he finds his wife is missing. Ed is waiting for her at home all through the night, but as he waits we notice something is wrong with his house -- strange noise behind the wall, unfamiliar voice, and more and more weird and unnerving occasions. Ed is certain something must have happened to her -- but soon we realize that it is Ed that is really falling apart.

The idea is good, and the camera successfully keeps on conveying the creepy atomosphere of Ed's house, but the lack of fenesse in keeping us interested is too apparent on the side of director Michael Walker, who says the film is partly based on his personal experience. To his credit, the strange feelings you get when you stay up late till dawn are convincingly created, and the acting of Jeff Daniels, who usually is forced to play the supporting roles as in "Speed," shows his gift as a talented actor, becoming the character Ed himself. But the question is, sorry to say like this, but, why should we care?

The film doesn't hold our (or my) attention long, because the film goes nowhere (everything happens all in Ed's house, and this setting is too high a hurdle to clear). While we don't know what happened to Ed's wife, the film tries to project Ed's lost dreams in the past and his regret onto the screen through the events that are slowly revealed in the film, but by the time we come to know Ed's personality, we know the film offers nothing new to find in the film. Emliy Bergl ("Carrie 2") and Gil Bellows ("Ally McBeal") both give good support, but their precious help is hardly enough to keep the ball rolling.

There are truely intense and creepy moments in the film, including a certain moving finger, but the overall results really disappointed me. As some of the previous reviewers say, we have already films dealing with similar themes by a better hand of David Lynch, whose more confident vision for the macabre and weird is sadly missing here.

A huge disappointment. I've read all the reviews and I have to wonder if I watched the same movie that everyone else did. I love Jeff Daniels and think that he is a talented actor. I am also a fan of up and coming Julian McMahon. All I can say is that their talent is wasted. If you wanted a David Lynch ..., don't waste your time - why not go to the master himself and rent Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive. As for horror, the Evil Dead series is by far the best in low budget fun, Bruce Campbell's lopped off hand by far excedes the inchworm effect of Daniel's finger. I found myself having a hard time staying awake during this movie and in fact was counting sheep.

couldnt save this stinker. Attempts to be surreal and perverse and succeeds at neither. You wait the whole movie for a tie up to answer some questions, and you get nothing. Daniels is a professor whose wife never comes home, and you spend the movie wondering if he made her disappear or not. I won't spoil it for those who won't heed my warning.