While You Were Sleeping (1995)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Coma Over

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

This is the first romantic comedy I've seen in a long time that, by the third act, doesn't forget about being funny. Sandra Bullock plays Lucy, a token collector on the Chicago commuter train who develops a crush on mystery man Peter (Peter Gallagher). Muggers attack him and Lucy rescues him from the train tracks. In the hospital, she is mistaken for his fiancee, which his weird family is all too ready to believe. When Peter's brother, Jack (Bill Pullman) shows up, Sandy and he fall in love for real. What makes this movie work is a combination of the great character actors, notably the deadpan, hilarious Peter Boyle. These professionals make the family work as a unit, funny, obnoxious and warm at the same time. Additionally, Bullock is enormously charming and really quite powerful in her performance; she steals most of her scenes with her small, subtle traits. Late in the film, Gallagher gets in a few good moments as the bewildered, but still self-obsessed, coma guy.