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"SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE" (1993) (Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan) (PG) QUICK TAKE: Romantic Comedy: The young son of a lonely Seattle widower calls a radio talk show to seek a new wife for his dad, and across the country in Baltimore, a newspaper writer hears the call and wonders if the guy might be the one, even though she's engaged to a man allergic to everything. PLOT: Architect Sam Baldwin (TOM HANKS) and his young son Jonah (ROSS MALINGER) have recently lost a beloved wife and mother. Even though Sam has Jonah to get him through it, he still feels pangs of loneliness and Jonah notices this enough to call a nationwide radio talk show to explain to the host that he thinks his father needs a new wife. All the way in Baltimore, Annie Reed (MEG RYAN), a writer for the Baltimore Sun, hears Sam's talk on the radio about how much he loved his wife and is deeply affected by it. She's curious about who Sam is and if perhaps he is actually the right one for her and not Walter (BILL PULLMAN), whom she is engaged to and who is allergic to nearly everything. With the help of their various respective friends, and as Sam dates Victoria (BARBARA GARRICK), they try to figure out their futures, all while Jonah tries to get them together. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? Fans of the romantic comedy genre, as well as anyone in the cast, will want to see it. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG For some language. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: TOM HANKS plays Sam Baldwin, an architect in Chicago grieving over the loss of his beloved wife. With his son Jonah, he decides to move to Seattle so that he's not reminded of his wife in every part of Chicago. He's surprised that Jonah has gone so far to call a radio talk show to try to find a new wife for him, and receives hundreds of letters in response. He tries to date again, finding Victoria, though Jonah doesn't see her as the right one for him. He uses profanity. MEG RYAN plays Annie Reed, newly engaged to Walter, who's allergic to nearly everything. She believes that she'll be happy with him, but she sees a ripped wedding dress as a sign that perhaps things might not be perfect. And so it is, when she's driving on Christmas Eve and hears Jonah on the radio, talking about his father's loneliness, and then Sam, explaining how much he loved his wife and why and how he's trying to cope. She's intrigued and seeks out more about him, wondering if he's actually the right one for her. BILL PULLMAN plays Walter, engaged to Annie, who sneezes terribly at the dinner table at her parents' house and it's then that we learn about his many allergies, which becomes a running theme throughout the film. ROSS MALINGER plays Jonah Baldwin, Sam's son, who calls a radio talk show to seek a new wife for him. He vehemently disapproves of Victoria, Sam's own find, and tries to convince Sam that they should fly out to New York to meet Annie. ROSIE O'DONNELL plays Becky, Annie's editor at the Baltimore Sun and also her friend. She reliably supports Annie through her dilemma about whether she should find Sam, or remain engaged to Walter. GABY HOFFMANN plays Jessica, Jonah's friend who helps him get to New York. VICTOR GARBER plays Greg, one of Sam's friends who supports him through his time of grief, and who also visits him in Seattle. He drinks briefly. RITA WILSON plays Suzy, wife to Greg and Sam's other friend, who also supports him through his time of grief, and supports Jonah's belief that Sam should find someone new. BARBARA GARRICK plays Victoria, whom Sam calls up for a drink, which becomes a dinner date and soon Sam is dating her, but Jonah doesn't approve of her, especially with her high-pitched laugh. CAREY LOWELL plays Maggie Baldwin, Sam's deceased wife, who appears in a flashback and as a ghost to Sam. DAVID HYDE PIERCE plays Dennis Reed, whom Annie comes to when she's in a dilemma about whether she should be with Sam or Walter, but he ends up merely being a sounding board. ROB REINER plays Jay, a friend of Sam's who's also working on the same house he is, and advises Sam on how things have changed since he last dated. He drinks briefly. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: The following is a brief summary of the content found in this PG-rated romantic comedy. Profanity consists of 2 "s" words while colorful phrases are also spoken. Sexually-related dialogue is present, and a term for sex is also present in the lyric of a song heard. Drinking is present as is some tense family material and some bad attitudes. Some behavior may be tempting to imitate. Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may want to look more closely at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE A bottle of wine sits at the dinner table of Annie's parents' house, and Annie holds up a glass of red wine. After talking about Annie and Walter's pending nuptials, Annie's mother says to her father, "Oh honey, what a shame. We had some champagne, and what did we use it for?" Annie's brother, Dennis, says, "Uncle Milton's parole." Uncle Milton says, "And it was delicious," and Annie's mother says, "It was, wasn't it, Milton?" Not long after, Dennis holds up a glass of white wine and proposes a toast, and the rest of the table holds up their glasses of red wine and we see Annie's cousin Irene drink from hers, while Irene's husband, Harold, puts a finger in it, then looks at his finger. Harold says to Walter that he's allergic to bees and Irene says, "Harold is allergic to every type of bee. We always have to carry a hypodermic of adrenaline wherever we go." About Sam, Becky says to Annie, "The guy could be a crackhead, a transvestite, a flasher, a junkie, a chain-saw murderer…" At a New Year's Eve party, a waiter pours out champagne for a woman not seen clearly, and a man. There's a beer bottle on Sam's coffee table, and a three-quarter-filled glass next to it. The ghost of Sam's wife asks him, "Can I have half your beer?" and picks up the glass. Sam tells Jonah, "I'd much rather just see somebody I like and get a feeling about them and ask them if they want to have a drink." Jonah asks, "Or a slice of pizza?" and Sam answers, "Not dinner. Not necessarily on the first date, because halfway through dinner you could really be sorry you asked them to dinner, whereas if it's just a drink, if you like them, you could always ask them to dinner." Jay drinks from a glass of beer. Sam asks Victoria over the phone if she wants to have a drink with him. Sam says to Clarise the babysitter and Jonah before he leaves, "Here's a bottle of Ipecac if anybody drinks poison, it's right here next to the juice glasses." Sam has a glass of beer near him at the table. Victoria sits down and the maitre'd guesses correctly that she wants a "white wine spritzer." We see the bar in the background as Victoria sits down. Later, the waiter puts down the white wine spritzer for Victoria, and Sam gives his glass of beer to the waiter, saying, "I will have an Absolut straight up, please." Also in the restaurant in one shot, we see a collection of wine bottles in some kind of receptacle, as well as glasses on other tables, and the man at the table behind Sam's drinks from his glass. There's also a glass of beer on the table the private detective sits at. At the dinner table in Sam's house are two glasses of white wine, the one on the right more empty than the one on the left, and a bottle of white wine is also there. Walter has some kind of steam vapor device running near his side of the bed so he can breathe better. Suzy holds a quarter-filled glass of red wine. At the table is a half-filled glass of red wine for Sam and a quarter-filled glass for Greg, and a bottle of red wine. Greg drinks from his glass of wine. Later, Greg uncorks another bottle of wine and pours out more for Suzy, then Sam, and then himself. The waiter at the restaurant asks Walter, "Can I get you a drink?" Walter asks Annie, "Some champagne?" and she says, "Fine." Walter asks the waiter, "Can we have a bottle of Dom DeLuise?" and then says, "Just kidding." Annie says to the waiter, "It was a joke. He meant Dom Perignon." Later, two flutes of fizzing champagne sit on the table between Annie and Walter. BLOOD/GORE Sam, trying to search for a reason that Jonah is calling him at the restaurant, asks him, among four questions, if he's bleeding. Annie asks Walter, "Are you bleeding?" after accidentally hitting him with her elbow. Jonah's cab driver asks him what he's going to do after he gets to the Empire State Building, "Spit off the top?" DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE Most of the following is played for comedy: Annie is having Walter remember who the members of her family are, before they get to the house, and Walter says, "The tall one with red hair is your cousin Irene." Annie interjects, "You'll recognize her by the disappointed look on her face," and Walter continues, "who was married to Harold who ran off with his secretary," and Annie says, "But came back because Irene threatened to put the dog to sleep if he didn't." Jonah says to Dr. Fieldstone on the phone while watching Sam and Victoria kiss (off-camera), "She's a ho. My dad's been captured by a ho." Jonah says "bye" to Victoria and after she turns away, he points a finger at his tongue in disgust and rolls his eyes to the top of his head. Sam playfully mocks Suzy's teary love for "An Affair to Remember" by saying that he cried at the end of "The Dirty Dozen," describing the scene, and then Greg mockingly breaks down into fake tears. Jessica uses her mom's computer to book a flight for Jonah to New York City, and later initially refuses to tell her parents, and Sam, where Jonah went. Sam and Jonah argue over going to New York to meet Annie. We hear Jonah slam the door to his room. Sam comes in, then slams the door on the way out. Jonah opens the door and exclaims, "I don't care what you do!" Sam replies, "Good! Fine!" At the end of the argument, Jonah shouts, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" Sam runs out an exit of the airport and grabs the next cab ahead of someone, giving cash to the guy motioning the cabs for passengers, but within the confines of the plot, it's necessary. FRIGHTENING SCENES A taxi nearly hits Annie as she stands in the middle of the road. GUNS/WEAPONS None. IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "She's a ho. My dad's been captured by a ho," "G*ddamn it," "Fiddle-de-dee," "H and G (hi and goodbye)," and "You're a basket case." Using a line from "Pride of the Yankees," Walter says, "Today I consider myself the luckiest m-m-m-man on the f-f-f-face of the earth-earth-earth-earth," imitating an echo. Annie and Walter do a dance move in which they nearly push into each other, with their arms over their heads. Jonah purses his lips and vibrates them out of disgust at a bad pun in a letter, and throws it behind him. Jonah says to Sam that he needs the towel too and Sam reaches over and rubs it all over Jonah's face playfully, while Jonah objects muffledly. Walter snores with a tissue over his mouth, which goes down when he snores and then back up. Victoria has a high-pitched laugh that may be tempting to imitate. Nearly all the featured women in the film express great love for "An Affair to Remember," while the men (and boy) don't understand the appeal. In one scene, Sam playfully mocks Suzy's tearful love for it by talking about how the end of "The Dirty Dozen" affected him in the same way, and Suzy's husband Greg fake cries. JUMP SCENES None. MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) None. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) A rendition of "Makin' Whoopee" by Dr. John is heard, with the lyric: "Another bride. Another groom. Another sunny honeymoon. Another season, and that's the reason, for makin' whoopee." PROFANITY At least 2 "s" words, 6 slang terms for sex ("laid" and "makin' whoopee") and 1 use each of "G*ddamn," "Oh God" and "Oh my God." SEX/NUDITY Annie takes off her shoes, and we see her legs, as well as a hint of a white slip underneath her red dress. Then she takes off her dress, revealing the slip, and one strap hangs down her left shoulder before she puts it back up. Annie's mother says to her, "One of the things I truly knew was that your father and I were going to have a wonderful time in-the sack, I believe you call it." Annie exclaims, "Mom!" and her mother says, "Of course, it took several years before everything worked like clockwork in that department. So don't be worried if it takes a while." Annie says to her, "Well, we already...", and her mother replies, "Fine. Fine. Fiddle-de-dee. How's it working?" Annie says, "Like clockwork." About Sam, Becky says to Annie, "The guy could be a crackhead, a transvestite, a flasher, a junkie, a chain-saw murderer…" While brushing his teeth, Jonah asks Sam, "If you get a new wife, I guess you'll have sex with her, huh?" Sam replies, "I certainly hope so." Jonah asks, "Will she scratch up your back?" Sam asks, incredulous, "What?" Jonah continues, "In movies, women are always scratching up the man's back and screaming and stuff when they're having sex." Sam asks him, "How do you know this?" and Jonah answers, "Jed's got cable." A rendition of "Makin' Whoopee" by Dr. John is heard, with the lyric: "Another bride. Another groom. Another sunny honeymoon. Another season, and that's the reason, for makin' whoopee." Annie listens to the "Best of Dr. Marcia Fieldstone" on the radio, and one of the archival callers is "Disappointed in Denver," who says, "Every time I come close to orgasm, he goes to make himself a sandwich." Dr. Fieldstone replies, "Why don't you make him a sandwich beforehand?" Jay tells Sam that things are a little different than 1978, when Sam last dated. "First you have to be friends. You have to like each other. Then you neck. This could go on for years. Then you have tests and then you get to do it with a condom." After a few seconds, he says, "Tira Misu." Sam asks what it is and Jay says, "You'll find out." Sam asks, "Well what is it?" and Jay says, "You'll see." Sam says, "Some woman is gonna want me to do it to her and I'm not gonna know what it is." Jay replies, "You'll like it." Jonah says to Dr. Fieldstone on the phone while watching Sam and Victoria kiss (off-camera), "She's a ho. My dad's been captured by a ho." Annie asks Becky, "You know that dream when you're walking down the street naked and everyone is looking at you?" Becky replies, "I love that dream." Sam and Jonah argue over going to New York to meet Annie. We hear Jonah slam the door to his room. Sam comes in, then slams the door on the way out. Jonah opens the door and exclaims, "I don't care what you do!" Sam replies loudly, "Good! Fine!" Then he says quietly, "I'll tell you what I'm doing this weekend. I'm getting laid. 1990s and nobody's getting laid. I'm the only man who's in America getting laid this weekend and I haven't been laid that much. Six girls in college, maybe seven." SMOKING None. TENSE FAMILY SCENES Sam and Jonah stand at the coffin of Sam's wife (who's Jonah's mother), and Sam explains that it happened "just like that." Sam decides to move them to Seattle so that he's not reminded of his wife in every part of Chicago, and after Jonah gets him on the call-in show, Sam explains how much he loved his wife and why and how he's trying to cope. Sam and Jonah argue over going to New York to meet Annie. We hear Jonah slam the door to his room. Sam comes in, then slams the door on the way out. Jonah opens the door and exclaims, "I don't care what you do!" Sam replies, "Good! Fine!" At the end of the argument, Jonah shouts, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT Sam's son Jonah calls a radio talk show to explain that he thinks his dad needs a new wife and it elicits not only a huge response in letters, but Annie, in Baltimore, listens as well and despite being engaged to the allergic-to-nearly-everything Walter, she wonders if Sam might be the one instead. How easier things seem to be in romantic comedies whereas real life obviously presents a different side, such as Annie just flying to Seattle and seemingly not having any deadline to worry about at her job as a writer for the Baltimore Sun. Sam and Jonah cope with the death of Maggie, wife to Sam and mother to Jonah. Chemistry between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, however brief here, that brought the pair acclaim and led to them reuniting with writer/director Norah Ephron for 1998's "You've Got Mail." Nearly all the featured women in the film express great love for "An Affair to Remember," while the men (and boy) don't understand the appeal. In one scene, Sam playfully mocks Suzy's tearful love for it by talking about how the end of "The Dirty Dozen" affected him in the same way, and Suzy's husband Greg fake cries. VIOLENCE Annie accidentally hits Walter in the face with her elbow as Walter gets up. Reviewed off DVD / Posted August 20, 2010