I had originally planned a completely different blog post for this month’s ‘Throwback Thursday’, but to blatantly borrow the words Lucy Eleanor Moderatz’s (the main character in ‘While You Were Sleeping’) father had imparted to her, “Life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan.”
With the Festive Season fast approaching, my husband and I thought it was appropriate to begin our ritual of watching some of the Christmas movie classics (since it was quite a list to get through); from ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ to ‘Serendipity’, from ‘Love Actually’ to ‘The Holiday’. Periodically, we even sit through the ‘Home Alone’ series.
Based in Chicago, ‘While You Were Sleeping’ tells the story of Lucy (Sandra Bullock), a lonely fare token collector for the Chicago Transit Authority secretly in love with Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher), a handsome commuter she had never said a word to. When Peter is mugged and then pushed onto the train tracks on Christmas Day, Lucy saves and accompanies a now comatose Peter to the hospital. When Lucy isn’t allowed to visit him, a nurse overhearing her musing “I was going to marry him” ends up telling Peter’s family that Lucy is his fiancée. Caught up in the misunderstanding and finding comfort in her supposed fiancee’s quirky family, Lucy ends up spending a belated Christmas celebration with the Callaghans, where she meets Peter’s younger brother Jack (Bill Pullman).
Synopsis adapted from Wikipedia.
If memory serves me correctly, this was probably one of the first Christmas movies my husband (then boyfriend, and subsequently fiancee) and I watched together in the lead-up to Christmas. And every year since, it has always been a strong contender to be the first Christmas movie we watched to put us in the Festive mood.
As far as storyline goes, it leans (those whom have watched the movie could probably notice the pun here) towards the cheesy side. But, to us, there is always something so refreshing about Sandra Bullock’s performance, projecting a relatable, sometimes clumsy girl-next-door who just wants to spend Christmas with someone other than her cat. The score is, hands down, one of the best soundtracks we have ever heard, dubbed by my husband as timeless. A few staccato notes could send you giggling, predicting that something quirky or comical is about to happen. The beginning of two long notes played in repetition could pluck at your heartstrings, make you swoon, or both.
Packed with memorable quotes – and the fact that we could recall and pre-empt some of them ahead of time didn’t diminish the movie’s allure whatsoever, here are some of our favourites.
“Okay, there are two things that I remember about my childhood – I just don’t remember it being this orange.”
“Oh, geez, I was talking to myself.”
“Well, next time you talk to yourself, tell yourself you’re single and end the conversation.”
“Lucy, you are born into a family. You do not join them like you do the marines.”
“You know, you do remind me of someone. It’s probably you.”
“Oh! I don’t want any flowers from you, I am not wearing black underwear, and I definitely do not want to move in with you, Jo… Jack.“
“Well, I don’t have any flowers, I wouldn’t mind seeing the black underwear, but under the circumstances, I don’t think we should move in together.“
A bit more on the serious side – and one of the underlying messages of the movie, the following quote would, at the very least, make me catch my breath, if not downright bring a tear to my eye.
“Have you ever been so alone you spend the night confusing a man in a coma?”
What about you? What are some of your must-watch, favourite Christmas movies? What is/are your yearly Christmas ritual(s) (other than putting up the Christmas tree)?
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