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Sleepless in Seattle
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Sleepless in Seattle is a 1993 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Nora Ephron. Based on a story by Jeff Arch, it stars Tom Hanks as Sam Baldwin and Meg Ryan as Annie Reed.
The film was inspired by An Affair to Remember and used both its theme song and clips from the film in critical scenes. The climactic meeting at the top of the Empire State Building is a reference to a reunion between Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember that fails to happen because the Kerr character is struck by a car while enroute.
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Encyclopedia
Sleepless in Seattle is a 1993 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Nora Ephron. Based on a story by Jeff Arch, it stars Tom Hanks as Sam Baldwin and Meg Ryan as Annie Reed.
The film was inspired by An Affair to Remember and used both its theme song and clips from the film in critical scenes. The climactic meeting at the top of the Empire State Building is a reference to a reunion between Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember that fails to happen because the Kerr character is struck by a car while enroute. At one point, some of the characters discuss Affair, with Sam commenting that it sounds like a "chick movie."
Plot summary
Sam Baldwin, a Chicago architect, has lost his wife (Carey Lowell) to cancer. He and his young son Jonah move to Seattle, Washington to make a fresh start, but Sam is still disconsolate. On Christmas evening, Jonah calls into a national radio advice show and persuades his father to go on the air with him to talk about how much he misses his wife. Thousands of women around the country, touched by Sam's story, send him letters. One letter is from Annie Reed, a journalist from Baltimore, Maryland, engaged to a nice but sneeze-prone man named Walter (Bill Pullman) who feels that there is something missing.
Meanwhile, Jonah, who has been working his way through the flood of mail, finds Annie's missive and likes that it mentions the Baltimore Orioles. He tries to convince his father to go to New York City to meet her on Valentine's Day, but Sam loses his temper and refuses. Sam begins to see a coworker, Victoria, who Jonah cannot bear because, among other things, she acts like a whore and laughs like a hyena. On the advice of a friend, he mails a letter to Annie saying to meet his father at the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day. At the airport, while waiting for Victoria, Sam sees Annie getting off the plane and is momentarily entranced.
Annie, on a whim, has traveled to Seattle to meet Sam. She watches he and Jonah playing on the beach together, and on the advice of a friend, Becky, she decides to meet and talk to him. Next day, she sees Sam with his sister Suzy, and thinking she is his girlfriend, stops in the middle of the street. Sam recognizes her, and says hello; all she can respond is hello back, a reference to the movie An Affair to Remember, which she later tells Becky about. Annie then decides she has been being silly and nervous, and goes to New York to meet Walter.
Jonah flies to New York and takes a taxi to the Empire State Building, saying he's going to meet his new mother. Sam, in pursuit, catches up with Jonah, who hasn't found Annie. Meanwhile Annie sees the Empire State Building from the restaurant at which she is eating, and breaks up with her fiancé. Jonah and Sam get on the down elevator just before a late Annie rushes in, but with the help of a lost backpack and teddy bear, they finally meet and all ends well.
Cast
Credits
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was a Number One hit on the Billboard charts.
- Jimmy Durante - "As Time Goes By" 2:28
- Louis Armstrong - "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" 3:01
- Nat King Cole - "Stardust" 3:15
- Dr. John feat. Rickie Lee Jones - "Makin' Whoopee" 4:09
- Carly Simon - "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" 3:16
- Gene Autry - "Back in the Saddle Again" 2:36
- Joe Cocker - "Bye Bye Blackbird" 3:30
- Harry Connick, Jr. - "A Wink And A Smile" 4:08
- Tammy Wynette - "Stand By Your Man" 2:41
- Marc Shaiman - "An Affair to Remember" 2:31
- Jimmy Durante - "Make Someone Happy" 1:52
- Celine Dion & Clive Griffin - "When I Fall in Love" 4:21
Trivia
- Kim Basinger was the first choice for the role of "Annie Reed", but she turned down the role because she thought the script was not written well enough. She later stated that she regrets turning the part down, and she admitted that her judgment on picking successful films is often poor. Julia Roberts also turned down the role.
- Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks share approximately two minutes of screentime together.
- Jason Schwartzman auditioned for the role of "Jonah".
- The movie was featured in a Garfield book, Lights, Camera, Hairballs, except renamed as Sleeping in Seattle to fit in the Garfield theme.
- In the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle episode "Reese's party", the character Reese finds out that his brother Malcolm has rented the movie, and immediately assumes that Malcolm is gay. It turns out that Malcolm plans to watch the movie with his date.
- In the movie The Holiday, Cameron Diaz character also uses the statistic that a woman over 30 has more of a chance of being in a terrorist attack than getting married.
- There is a Postcards from Buster episode named "Sleepy in Seattle".
Box office
- US Gross Domestic box office: US$ 126,680,884
- Gross International box office: $101,119,000
- Gross Worldwide box office: $227,799,884
- US rentals: $64,930,000
Awards
Sleepless in Seattle received two nominations for awards in the 66th Academy Awards (held in 1994), but did not win either of them. It lost out to The Piano for Best Original Screenplay while the song "A Wink and a Smile" lost out to "Streets of Philadelphia" for Best Original Song. The film was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards: one for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy (Tom Hanks) another for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Meg Ryan and a third for Best Breakthrough Performance (Ross Malinger).
The film won four awards at different ceremonies. Meg Ryan won the award for Funniest Actress in a Leading Role at the American Comedy Awards. At the 1994 Young Artist Awards, Ross Malinger won the award for Best Actor Under Ten in a Motion Picture and the film itself won Outstanding Family Motion Picture for Comedy.
External links
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