Sleepwalking

So there were some good things and some bad things about Sleepwalking. On the good things list is the camera, which regularly perfectly frames a face. Is it fate that I read the following in David Thomson's The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood before seeing Sleepwalking? “... the chemistry that exists between photography and the face maintains a depth or mystery that is without rival.” (Pg. 86.) For Thomson, the image of the face, or images of the face as it moves through time, lie at the heart of an understanding of cinema. Sleepwalking adheres to this theory, to its benefit. Also interesting: Charlize Theron again makes herself – not exactly unpretty – but not the glamorous image she is well capable of being. Red eyes, tragedy makeup, and the right kind of light; if it works on her it will work on anyone.

On the bad things list is the plot. A melodrama about family relationships, Sleepwalking manhandles our emotions as characters lose their jobs, their homes, their children, etc. I felt manipulated, especially by a scene near the end. I caution you, what follows discusses a major plot development. In the final act, a man murders his own father. Such is the power of narrative that a fucked up situation like patricide become satisfying, completing, wholesome. As the son bangs away at the father yelling “its all your fault” we believe it and the violence is cleansing. No blood, which might engender sympathy, is shown. This could have been played out differently, it would have been sufficient for the son to stand up to the father some other way. One thing I liked about In the Valley of Elah was that violence done by anyone served only to worsen, never to resolve. In Sleepwalking violence begets violence, and violence solves the problem, with the force of a happy ending and narrative resolution shoving this “solution” down our throats. The violence in either American Psycho or Kill Bill could never be this disturbing, even if it is more prevalent and graphic, because stylization always put the killing in quotes. Sleepwalking never allows for a question mark.