10
Al does Sleep With Me
Posted by Alan
“I’m trying to tell your wife that I’m in love with her.“
The Scoop: 1994 R, directed by Rory Kelly and starring Meg Tilly, Eric Stoltz, and Craig Sheffer.
Tagline: A romantic comedy brave enough to say those three magic words.
Summary Capsule: Sex ruins everything.
Al’s Rating: These three so completely deserve each other. I’m just gonna go hang out with their friends while they whine.
Al’s Review: There’s a famous scene in Sleep with Me. Not ‘horse head in a bed’ famous or anything, but well-known enough that it makes the rounds on the internet every few months. It features Quentin Tarantino at a house party, explaining the brilliant subversiveness of the script to Top Gun. Top Gun, he proclaims, is not simply about jets and testosterone, but is, in fact, a metaphor for a man coming to grips with his own homosexuality. It’s funny and clever and delivered in Tarantino’s typical 90-miles-a-minute-without-slowing-for-crosswalks style.
It’s a shame that the rest of Sleep With Me can’t keep up with it. The movie’s actual story follows a love triangle of best friends Joseph (Eric Stoltz), Sarah (Meg Tilly), and Frank (Craig Sheffer). As the film opens, Joseph and Sarah get engaged during a road trip after much poking and prodding from Frank. The day before the wedding, however, Sarah admits to Frank that once, a few years ago, she considered going after him while she and Joseph were fighting. This sends Frank spiraling out of control as he wrestles with feelings he thought he had put to bed a long time ago.
It’s a solid romantic comedy premise, marred only by the creeping realization that you want desperately to throttle the characters onscreen. Frank rapidly devolves into an emo schlemiel, vacillating between being anxious, irritable, and creepy, while Joseph and Sarah do nothing but argue and sulk and give each other stinkeyes from across the room until they can barely stand to be around each other. They’re great performances; I just don’t actually want to sit through them.
The good news, however, is that Sleep With Me is from the early nineties, placing it smack in the middle of the post-Clerks/Pulp Fiction ‘slacker comedy’ boom. As a result, Frank, Joseph, and Sarah have a Greek chorus of loser/philosopher friends who sit around drinking, smoking, and playing poker while snarking about life and relationships. They are funny, weird, and partially composed of Parker Posey and Joey Lauren Adams, so I instantly award cool points. The banter never quite reaches Kevin Smith levels of fascinating banality (ooh, college words) but really does a good job helping you forget that our protagonists are so earlobe-tearingly awful.
So, do I recommend Sleep With Me? I don’t really know. It’s got some funny dialogue in it. It’s got Top Gun being outed in public. It’s got Joey Lauren Adams and Parker Posey. Maybe it’s worth a watch when you’re in one of those moods where you just want to wear lots of flannel and listen to Beck. For those of you who don’t get in those moods? Youtube is this way; check out Quentin Tarantino and Top Gun, and then you can probably get back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Want another opinion? Check out Kym, Justin, and Mark’s reviews here!
This man was nearly Marty McFly. Personally, I think we dodged a bullet.
Didja Notice?
- Frank’s beret? With the moustache, too? And a scarf? Oh, man.
- Nothing dates a movie as fast as gas prices.
- The Clerks title card thing?
- Vanessa Angel as Frank’s date?
- Joseph remembering being born?
- Leo is way too serious about poker night?
- June Lockheart as the horribly boring mother-in-law?
- Parker Posey? Rowr.
- Leo is randomly in a wheelchair in the last scene?
Is It Worth Staying Through The End Credits?
Just for the funky soundtrack.
Intermission!
The premise of Sleep With Me was divided into six parts and written by six screenwriters, all friends.
Groovy Quotes
Joseph: You’re telling me that the reason you’re named Frank is because your mother slept with Sinatra? What about your father?
Frank: My father never slept with Sinatra. Just my mother.
Joseph: You’re always teaming up with him. You’re supposed to be on my side.
Sarah: But then I would always be wrong, too.
Duane: I know I teased you both about the pitfalls of marriage over the years. I just wanted to say… why didn’t you listen?
Duane: I perceive a homoerotic subtext here.
Deborah: I think you would like men a lot less if you were married to one.
Joseph: What the hell is going on here?
Frank: I’m trying to tell your wife that I’m in love with her.
Duane: You know what she said to me? She said I was full of “inner rage.” Can you believe that? I should have popped her right then. Bitch.
Leo: Congratuations, Rory, you’ve picked an emotion.
Nigel: I think you two should kiss and make up. Or beat the crap out of each other. That would be interesting, too.
Caroline: I’ll not stay in this house a minute longer!
Nigel: I’m timing you!
QT: And what is the last f—ing line that they have together? They’re all hugging and kissing and happy with each other, and Ice comes up to Maverick, and he says, “Man, you can ride my tail, anytime!” And what does Maverick say? “You can ride mine!”
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