![]() ![]() The music was so powerful, in fact, and so integrated with the screenplay that it helped gloss over the incredibility of the film's premise, which, as you might recall, had Meg Ryan falling in love with Tom Hanks, a stranger she had never met, merely from hearing him being interviewed on a radio talk show on Christmas Eve. Indeed, the film re-introduced a whole new generation to the unique charms of Jimmy Durante with his renditions of 'As Time Goes By' and 'Make Someone Happy' over the opening and closing credits, respectively, resulting in a boomlet of enthusiasm for the work of the ol' Schnozzola. With artists old (Louis Armstrong, Nat 'King' Cole, Gene Autry), new (CĂ©line Dion, Harry Connick, Jr.) and somewhere in between (Carly Simon, Joe Cocker, Tammy Wynette), the movie's array of songs (many chosen by Ephron herself) appealed to hearts of every vintage and tastes of every stripe, and the tunes themselves represented the best that the Brill Building and Nashville had to offer. Nora Ephron directed her own screenplay and the result is a magic romantic film like they used to do even in the high tech Nineties.One of the great trio of romantic comedies starring Meg Ryan that were written and/or directed by the late Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally and You've Got Mail being the other two), 1993's Sleepless in Seattle was arguably the most romantic movie of its generation, and its soundtrack was a big reason why. Sleepless In Seattle got two Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Song. Rosie O'Donnell has a nice bit in this as well as Ryan's equally romantic minded friend who kind of quarterbacks Ryan's moves. Hanks and Ryan strike just the right note as the fated couple and Hanks has some great scenes with young Malenger. But if one is fated to be mated than those laws just don't apply. More cynical folks than myself would say that Ryan was stalking Hanks and there are laws against it. Good old reliable steady Bill, but Meg is hearing a different calling and taking her cues from that Leo McCarey classic, An Affair To Remember she goes in a nationwide hunt for Hanks. One of those touched hearts is Meg Ryan's who is ready to marry Bill Pullman who is playing what used to be called the Ralph Bellamy role. Hanks gets on the phone as well and his story touches female hearts across America and he's known by the moniker of Sleepless In Seattle. Hanks and Malinger move to Seattle and its from their new home in Seattle that young Master Malinger makes his fateful call. Tom Hanks is the recently widowed father of Malinger they've just finished burying his wife Carey Lowell and he thinks a change of scenery is in order to assuage his grief. But when young Ross Malinger calls a radio psychologist played in voice only by Caroline Aaron about his father it sets off an entire chain of events that make you believe in fate. If I had ever done this thing for either of my parents back in the day or something similar I shudder to think of the consequences. And this film takes up the proposition that some folks are fated to be mated. How could have you done a film like this in another time? Well romance is certainly eternal and if the way humans connect is different now, the point is they still connect. It's a film that is in part based on the high tech culture that the Nineties spawned with computers and nationwide talk radio. Sleepless In Seattle is truly a film for the Nineties. ![]()
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