Chasing Sleep (2000)

Professor Ed Saxon (Jeff Daniels Dumb And Dumber) awakens one morning to find his wife has not returned from work. He spends countless days and nights in a downward spiral of paranoia and sleeplessness. To make matters worse Ed is having hallucinations the house comes alive with an array of horrifying sights and sounds and the line between nightmare and reality is blurred beyond distinction. This is a hair-raising ride that will keep you on the edge of your bed and up all night!.System Requirements:Running Time 104 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: R UPC: 031398777922 Manufacturer No: VM7779D Product Description

My cup o' tea

(3.5/5 stars) This film reminds me of Le Locataire, Roman Polanski's superb thriller about a man slowly succumbing to his neuroses and descending into madness. Most of the story takes place inside one home and the pacing is slow and deliberate, so it might not appeal to all tastes. Fans of Kafka and Polanski, however, are likely to find much of interest here. Jeff Daniels is quite good as Ed Saxon, a professor at a local college. He phones the police early one morning to report his wife missing and with their help he begins to unravel the mystery of her disappearance. The story unfolds from Saxon's point of view, so the viewer really knows as little as he does. Eventually, however, it becomes very apparent to the viewer that Saxon should be cognizant of more than he is. It is always fun to watch psychologically damaged individuals become unhinged in movies because reality becomes contemptuously and surreally distorted, though no one actually gets hurt. Worth watching at lease once. February 5, 2008

A Gripping, Interior Chiller

This movie contains echoes of Edgar Allen Poe's "Telltale Heart," and also perhaps a few suggestions of the cult movie "Eraserhead." In all three works, the protagonist inhabits a house that becomes more and more animate. The plumbing growls and knocks and oozes strange effluents. There are ever-growing spots on the walls and ceiling. There is something on (or under) the floor.

But this is an essentially realistic rather than a surrealistic portrayal of a man trapped - in either his own imaginings or else in some actual, eerie conspiracy of natural phenomena. Jeff Daniels gives a tour de force performance as the man who reports his wife missing, and who then spirals down into a gnawing, insomniac worry that she may have met with foul play.

This movie becomes especially intriguing in light of all the recent publicity given to men suspected of murdering their wives. We think of Lacy Peterson and all the others as we watch Daniels' increasingly bleary and disoriented response to the police, to the outside world in general. Is he just being consumed with fear about what might have happened to his wife? Or is it a guilty conscience that is corroding him? The movie kept me guessing - until very near the end.
August 16, 2006

A big surprise

Showtime really did me in - I didn't realize this was their idea of a halloween movie flick! I didn't mean to watch it, but the movie guide called it a 'suspense' and I kept waiting for tell-tale suspense stuff I guess. When it didn't happen, I found myself standing in front of the TV before I finally realized I could sit and watch. After a bit it was so intense I could barely watch. A perfect halloween night movie. November 1, 2003

The Film Gives Good Atmosphere, But Lacks in Story

"Chasing Sleep" is titled in France as "Insomnies" and that fact will let you know enough what the film is all about. But unlike the Norwegian thriller (and its Hollywood remake) of the same name, "Chasing Sleep" is less like a thriller than a character study even though there is elements of thriller in it. Perhaps it is this mislead expectations of mine that made me feel disappointed at the film.

The film follows the central character, Jeff Daniel's Ed Saxon, whose life heavily suffers from insomnia which started when he finds his wife is missing. Ed is waiting for her at home all through the night, but as he waits we notice something is wrong with his house -- strange noise behind the wall, unfamiliar voice, and more and more weird and unnerving occasions. Ed is certain something must have happened to her -- but soon we realize that it is Ed that is really falling apart.

The idea is good, and the camera successfully keeps on conveying the creepy atomosphere of Ed's house, but the lack of fenesse in keeping us interested is too apparent on the side of director Michael Walker, who says the film is partly based on his personal experience. To his credit, the strange feelings you get when you stay up late till dawn are convincingly created, and the acting of Jeff Daniels, who usually is forced to play the supporting roles as in "Speed," shows his gift as a talented actor, becoming the character Ed himself. But the question is, sorry to say like this, but, why should we care?

The film doesn't hold our (or my) attention long, because the film goes nowhere (everything happens all in Ed's house, and this setting is too high a hurdle to clear). While we don't know what happened to Ed's wife, the film tries to project Ed's lost dreams in the past and his regret onto the screen through the events that are slowly revealed in the film, but by the time we come to know Ed's personality, we know the film offers nothing new to find in the film. Emliy Bergl ("Carrie 2") and Gil Bellows ("Ally McBeal") both give good support, but their precious help is hardly enough to keep the ball rolling.

There are truely intense and creepy moments in the film, including a certain moving finger, but the overall results really disappointed me. As some of the previous reviewers say, we have already films dealing with similar themes by a better hand of David Lynch, whose more confident vision for the macabre and weird is sadly missing here. February 27, 2003

Don't waste your time or money

This movie was a complete and utter waste of time, I don't think there was a single redeeming feature about it except for maybe the laughability of the crawling finger sequence.

Chasing Sleep started out looking as though it might be alright, but about halfway through the movie, everything went downhill. The plot had potential to be interesting, but just ended up more confusing than frightening and the ending was one of the absolute worst I've seen in a VERY long time. If nothing else, I would have liked to have seen them tie up all the loose ends in the end of the movie, but you get nothing.

To get to the point, this movie isn't worth the time or the money involved in watching it. I would have given it a "0" rather than a "1" if that were an acceptable rating. November 24, 2002

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