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Nick Stahl, Annasophia Robb, Charlize Theron, Deborra-Lee Furness, Mathew St. Patrick ... see more see more... , Callum Keith Rennie , Woody Harrelson , Dennis Hopper , Kenneth Mitchell , Jean Freeman , Troy Skog , George Grassick , Michael Ennis , Alexandra Fox , Lori Kennedy , R. James Anderson , Emily Wees , Amy Matysio , Simon Chin

Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Hopper, Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, and Deborra-Lee Furness star in a family drama detailing the efforts made by an 12-year-old girl to come to terms with her... read more read more... mother's abandonment. Tara's (Robb) mother, Joleen (Theron), just can't seem to get her life together. Her boyfriend has recently been arrested for growing marijuana, and rather than attempting to create a stable living environment for her daughter, Joleen instead places Tara in foster care before vanishing without a trace. Joleen's brother, James (Stahl), isn't exactly the picture of equilibrium, yet he does feel sympathetic toward his niece and obligated to help her though such difficult times. After breaking Tara out of foster care, James and his newly freed niece set out on the open road together. Destination: nowhere. But every road has an end, and before long James and Tara find themselves at James and Joleen's father's farm. James has always avoided thinking about his violent childhood, though he realizes that in order to break the vicious cycle of dysfunction that the family has fallen into he must finally confront the demons of his past. Now, as Tara begins to understand why her missing mother has lived such a tumultuous life, James prepares for the confrontation that could bring his family closer together than ever before, if it doesn't destroy them first. William Maher, who served as visual effects supervisor for the 2005 Sundance film The Chumscrubber, makes his feature directorial debut with a film based on an original screenplay by that film's scribe, Zac Stanford. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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44% liked it

42,163 ratings

Critics

17% liked it

60 critics

R, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: Bill Maher

Release Date: January 22, 2008

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DVD Release Date: July 8, 2008

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Flixster Reviews (607)

  • deano
    August 9, 2010
    deano
    Wonderfully life drama about the relationship between a 12-year-old girl and her uncle.
    Superb, naturalistic performances by the three lead actors, Nick Stahl, Charlize Theron and AnnaSophia Robb, make us truly care about the people they are portraying and the things that are ha... read moreppening to them.
    In Sleepwalking the scenery and climate could not have been more dull, barren and depressing. There are boring, depressing highways that go for miles without any beautiful scenery. Every location in this film is flat, dreary and depressing. This added to the disturbing impact of the movie. The people who live in the area of the movie are colourless, dull and depressing.
  • LWOODS04
    August 1, 2010
    LWOODS04
    Cast: Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, Charlize Theron, Dennis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, Deborra-Lee Furness, Callum Keith Rennie, Amy Matysio, Shannon Jardine, Simon Chin, Ken Mitchell, Jean Freeman, Troy Skog, George Grassick, Mike Ennis, Alexandra Fox

    Director: Bill Maher

    Sum... read moremary: When James's (Nick Stahl) sister, Joleen (Charlize Theron), shows up with her 11-year-old daughter, Tara (AnnaSophia Robb), he doesn't think twice about welcoming them into his home. But when Joleen skips town without her daughter, James is thrust into a role he's grossly unprepared for. At risk of losing Tara to foster care, James hits the road with his niece. Along the way, the pair develop a genuine bond and discover a true sense of family.

    My Thoughts: "Although I liked the film, it had many potholes. It really didn't fill in some of the blanks for me. But for what it was, it still a good film. Nick Stahl and AnnaSophia were really good in this. Dennis Hopper, was good in this as well. His character is a controlling, hateful man. Its so easy to hate him in this film. As many probably have, or will say, this movie is quite depressing. It really never lightens up. It's a bit slow in some spots and could have ran a little shorter in time. But all in all a good enough flick with a sad and disturbing story."
  • Redlats
    September 22, 2009
    Redlats
    Tara's mother is trash, and when she's forced from her home, she bunks in with her younger brother, then deserts her brother (James) and daughter (Tara). James does his best trying to care for Tara, but it isn't easy - he lands up losing his job, and Tara is put into foster care... read more. James and Tara land up at James' father's farm, which is where the movie becomes unrealistic.

    All in all, it is worth watching the movie. Not cute, more scary actually.
  • dreamfaeries
    August 20, 2008
    dreamfaeries
    Cute movie, well done job by cast.
  • LitelBluHli
    August 16, 2008
    LitelBluHli
    I've been wanting to see this when I first saw the previews for it earlier this year. Just finally got done with it. I really enjoyed this film. Nick Stahl was great in here and so was Annasophia Robb. A sad and touching film. It's one of the unique ones.
  • djdemersseman
    July 16, 2008
    djdemersseman
    Not incredible, but it packs a dramatic punch. Everyone involved delivered, but the premise wasn't particularly interesting or original.
  • xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
    July 4, 2008
    xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
    Excellent film! A great story everyone will enjoy. Forced out of her home after her boyfriend is arrested, Joleen Reedy needs a place to stay with her 11-year-old daughter, Tara. She turns for help to her younger brother Jamesva simple and overly trusting man who doesn't hesitate... read more to welcome them into his modest rental apartment. Almost as soon as she moves in, however, Joleen hits the road with another man. Utterly ill-equipped to be the sole guardian of an adolescent girl, James does his best to make his distraught niece happy. But, before long, things spin out of control: he loses his road crew job and Tara is put into foster care. Additionally, old wounds from his emotionally abusive and sometimes violent father begin to reopen as James is forced to re-examine his life. That's when James makes a fateful decision that will bring his life full circle and force him to face his demons. He takes off with Tara and the pair assumes new identities as father and daughter. What starts out as a ploy to evade authorities takes on a deeper significance as James strives to become the dad Tara never had and, for the first time, finds a true purpose in life.
  • dunmyer
    March 26, 2008
    dunmyer
    [font=Garamond][size=3]"Sleepwalking," a gritty, somber new film with [b]Charlize Theron[/b] and [b]Dennis Hopper[/b] in small but essential roles, should have been great. It had an interesting, heartbreaking story and a willingness to be uncompromising and stark in its approach.... read more What it lacked was a talented director with the right instincts to bring it all together. [/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3][img]http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/overture_films/sleepwalking/_group_photos/dennis_hopper2.jpg[/img][/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]Time after time the story would call for a moment of stunning visual poetry, and the director would clearly sense the need. He would try real hard and almost pull it off. But something would ring false or unoriginal, or an actor would be coached in the wrong way, shifting the nuance and weakening the impact. First-time director [b]William Maher [/b](not the comedian) has artsitic inclinations along the lines of Karen Moncrieff ("The Dead Girl") and Laurie Collyer ("Sherrybaby"). But he doesn't appear to have their kind of talent. This film probably would have been a major work if Moncrieff or Collyer had been in the director's chair.[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3][img]http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-03/36687970.jpg[/img][/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]Another serious weakness was in the performances of the lead actors, [b]Nick Stahl[/b] and [b]Anna Sophia Robb[/b]. Theron and Hopper blew them off the screen. I don't know if it's a question of the lead actors' lack of talent or the mediocre direction they received. Whatever the cause, it weakened the film at its center. Robb in particular is so off sometimes that she seems like she's playing a snotty rich kid from Los Angeles instead of a girl who's never left her small town and teetered on the edge of homelessness her whole life.[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]The film takes place in a barren, impoverished, under-populated area of America. It's never specified exactly where, but it's a wintry, snowy landscape, so my guess would be the Dakotas. A troubled mother (Theron) gets emergency assistance from her brother (Stahl) when a crisis occurs at home. She brings her daughter (Robb) along. The mother ends up skipping town, leaving dirt-poor Uncle James to figure out what to do with his niece. Social Services soon steps in, and the girl's plight becomes more dire. The central drama surrounds how Uncle James rises to this challenge and essentially starts his life over (he stops sleepwalking). This ends up involving a confrontation with his abusive father (Hopper), the details of which I won't give away.[/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3][img]http://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/overture_films/sleepwalking/_group_photos/charlize_theron1.jpg[/img][/size][/font]

    [font=Garamond][size=3]Utah-based critic Jeff Vice writes: "The movie is so overly familiar, and its take on the dysfunctional family dynamics is so unoriginal, that the whole thing might as well have been titled [i]Generic Bleak Sundance Film Festival Drama No. 500.[/i]" [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]Vice has a point, which he makes very well. But I think the familiarity and flatness weren't inherent in the story. Maher had a reasonably good story but just didn't quite know how to bring it to life. [/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3][/size][/font]
    [font=Garamond][size=3]"Sleepwalking" is by no means a terrible film. But it's one that doesn't deliver enough. I'm very disappointed, because this is just the kind of serious, earthy filmmaking that we need more of in this country. It hurts when a project of this quality ends up being delivered in a way that misses the mark. [/size][/font][font=Garamond][size=3]Recommendation: Skip "Sleepwalking" and rent "The Dead Girl" or "Sherrybaby."[/size][/font]
  • gator681
    March 23, 2009
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]"Sleepwalking" starts with Joleen(Charlize Theron) having to move yet again with her 11-year old daughter Tara(AnnaSolphia Robb), this time because her current squeeze got busted for growing pot. A sympathetic detective(Matthew St. Patrick) wants to help but ... read moreJoleen decides instead to move in with her brother James(Nick Stahl), a construction worker. While on the surface this may seem like a move towards normalcy, it is anything but when Joleen continues her wayward course of action, eventually leaving entirely with a promise to return by Tara's birthday. [/font]

    [font=Century Gothic]"Sleepwalking" is a slight character study that is enhanced by the quality of the performances(especially by Dennis Hopper who may be in the middle of a late career resurgence) and the expert cinematography. On the other hand, there is some facile psychology at work to try and explain the characters' actions and how that relates to family, especially in how one generation affects the next. Joleen is desperately trying to relive her lost young adulthood at an age when she feels Tara can take care of herself, forcing her to grow up too quickly and perilously close to being a piece of work, even at her young age. This is expressed perfectly in the movie's two best scenes set on a tabletop(it is not the actions but what's said) and a pool. Now, if only "Sleepwalking" had a halfway decent ending...[/font]
  • fb1144932598
    October 4, 2008
    fb1144932598
    Quite an interesting take on the power of family to influence the people we become. James (Stahl) is a bit of a wimp when his sister, Joleen (Theron), dumps her 12-year old daughter Tara (Robb), on him. Totally unprepared to parent this about-to-become teenager, James winds up lo... read moresing his job, his apartment, and his ability to function in the safe world he has built around himself. His sister, Joleen, on the other hand is a hellion bent on satisfying her need to be wanted even at the expense of her responsibilities. Tara is just a kid who has never known her father and is set adrift by a mother who seems to have abandoned her. We only find out the root of all these family dynamics when James winds up at his father's farm because he basically has nowhere else to go. The father, played masterfully by Dennis Hopper, is so full of rage that he cannot sustain any level of decency or display even one iota of affection for the fruit of his loins. Dark, troubling, violent, but ultimately hopeful, I found this to be a movie that, while not fun to watch, was entertaining and very thought provoking. I think that Miss Robb is a gem. She reminds me of Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen, Across the Universe). Her portrayal of a kid trying to keep from totally losing it when all of the adults around her seem incapable of providing her a shred of safety was remarkable. If for no other reason, watch it because this kid is truly amazing. In the special features we learn that she is the age of the character she portrays and that only increases my respect for her talent.

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Critic Reviews

J. R. Jones
December 8, 2008
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

The movie seems unusually honest in portraying the no-option existence of the working poor, but the story slips into melodrama in the last reel. Full Review

Richard Roeper
March 24, 2008
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

It's a film of mood -- and the mood is perfectly captured.

James Berardinelli
March 21, 2008
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

Sleepwalking provides character arcs for its two protagonists but neither is as interesting or memorable as the performances warrant. Full Review

Claudia Puig
March 14, 2008
Claudia Puig, USA Today

Portentous and dull, the film features one of the worst over-the-top performances by Dennis Hopper, who plays an abusive father. His role upends what could have been a mildly interesting family drama. Full Review

Peter Howell
March 14, 2008
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Saddled with a title all too true to its somnambulist pace, Sleepwalking is a textbook case of a bad movie partially redeemed by good acting. Full Review

Ruthe Stein
March 14, 2008
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle

Sleepwalking is a slow-moving family drama guaranteed to induce a nap if not somnambulism. Full Review

Stephen Whitty
March 14, 2008
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

The people never come alive, and the unremitting nastiness of the material is like being beaten with soggy towels for 90 minutes. Maybe another director and other leads might have helped. Full Review

Lou Lumenick
March 14, 2008
Lou Lumenick, New York Post

Beware any movie that ends with a cliché as dire as 'Today is the first day of the rest of your life.' What comes before that in Sleepwalking is relentlessly depressing. Full Review

Elizabeth Weitzman
March 14, 2008
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

It's no easy task staying awake through Sleepwalking, a downbeat debut from Bill Maher (no, not that one). Only a typically intense performance from co-star Nick Stahl offers the jolt needed to keep u... Full Review

Kevin Crust
March 14, 2008
Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times

Terrific performances and a bleak, riveting look at life on the economic fringes eventually gives way to an overly familiar tale of abuse, denial and catharsis that feels like warmed over Sam Shepard ... Full Review

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