An impressive amount of acting and directing talent is showered on a blueprint script in “Sleepwalking,” one of those well-intentioned numbers that doesn’t generate much heat.
Somewhere in Middle America (though actually filmed in Saskatchewan), a mother has messed up her family life again. This is Joleen (Charlize Theron, deglamorized again), who must move in with her younger brother, James (Nick Stahl), with her patient 12-year-old daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) in tow.
Charlize Theron is the producer of the movie, but she’s not the star; her character takes a powder after 15 minutes or so of screen time. Which leaves James alone to fend off the questions from Child Protective Services.
Eventually a road trip is called for. The highway leads back to the family patriarch, a hard-bitten old nasty with a fondness for beating his children.
This villain is played by Dennis Hopper. He gives the movie a much-needed jolt. With his leathery face and malevolent little eyes, he looks like a heartland nightmare. Hopper has turned into such a brand name, lending his “Easy Rider” persona to TV commercials, that it’s good to see him kicked in the butt to do a little acting.
Zac Stanford, who wrote the similarly limp “Chumscrubber,” hits a lot of the classic notes of American drama without actually creating specific, filled-in characters. As the title suggests, these people are supposed to be slumbering through their own lives, but this is taking things a bit too literally.
Nick Stahl, once the hero of “Terminator 3,” has a good understated quality, but he can’t help but vanish onscreen, thanks to the vagueness of the character. AnnaSophia Robb, a promising young actress (“Because of Winn-Dixie”), doesn’t hit a false note in the movie.
I liked what director William Maher did with the material; the acting is intimate, the scenes of icy weather and roadside truck stops are beautifully shot. Then the story intrudes, and the whole thing falls to earth again.
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