Several movies have become "Christmas classics" in our household, to be watched and enjoyed anew each year. Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life probably holds the top spot of most beloved holiday film around here; we never seem to tire of learning, along with George Bailey, that life really is wonderful and that friends make us rich.

I was surprised to realize the other day that another film, far more recent and quite different, has made its way onto my mental list of favorite Christmastime movies. As we hung the wreath on the door and began to haul the tree decorations out of the closet, and as snow poured down from heavy grey-white skies, I found myself going to the shelf to pull down our copy of While You Were Sleeping.

This 1995 film, directed by Jon Turteltaub and starring Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman, has become something of a romantic comedy staple in the ten years since it was released. Fans who love it really love it, and most people who enjoy the romantic comedy genre seem to fall into that "loving it" category. It's a rare treat in that it's a sort of sentimental "chick flick" that has humour with a broader appeal to men as well as women.

And it really is a Christmas movie. Though it can be enjoyed any time of the year, it's set specifically during the week following Christmas, and the fun often holiday themed soundtrack along with the scenes of wintry Chicago decked out for holiday festivities lends much of the film's enchantment. It also helps makes believable a big part of the driving emotional force of the story, that Lucy, our main character, is longing so deeply for a family that she'll act a little irrationally once she finds one she loves.

The story is told in Lucy's voice. That's Lucy Eleanor Moderatz, a young and lonely woman who works as a token taker for the Chicago Transit Authority. Lucy is lonely because her mother died when she was very little, and her father passed away last year. She has no siblings and few close friends (she and her Dad had moved to Chicago during his final illness). Although we don't pick up all these details at once, the opening scenes of the movie paint us a very clear portrait of a someone who feels utterly alone. We see Lucy's fond flashback memories of her Dad, memories suffused with such a warm glow that the picture's tinted orange. We see Lucy having to tell the hot dog vendor, again, what her "usual" is. Her boss cajoles her into working Christmas even though she already worked Thanksgiving, because she's the only one without any family commitments. We watch while Lucy wrestles to get a big unwieldy tree up to her small apartment, and how she eats dinner at a table for two -- with her own dish in front of her and her cat's dish set on the other side.

If all this sounds depressing, it's not. Poignant, yes, but depressing, no. What this film gets right from start to finish is tone. Sandra Bullock plays Lucy -- both on screen and in the early voice over narration -- as a kind of charming "every woman." She's wistful but spunky, with a sense of humour, cheerfully admitting (in those first flashback scenes) that she doesn't remember her childhood looking so orange; shyly presenting her weary landlord with a small Christmas gift pulled from the sleeves of her oversized sweater as he tries to figure out what to do about the window broken by the tree she was trying to haul upstairs; sadly (but funnily too) dunking her oreo in the milk in the cat's dish when the feline doesn't show up to claim his dinner. We can relate to her loneliness, and even wince a bit over it, but at the same time Bullock's portrayal makes us smile. A glamorous role it's not, especially since she spends much of the film wrapped up in an old overcoat and stocking cap, but Bullock as Lucy exudes a disarming sweetness.

Lucy is also a hapless romantic. She has fallen head over heels in love with a suave looking commuter (Peter Gallagher) who buys a token from her each weekday morning on his way to work. Her life changes forever one day when he's mugged in her sight, and then pushed onto the tracks where he's knocked out. In a scene that manages to be both tension filled and funny, Lucy pulls the man out of the path of an oncoming train and gets him to the hospital.

A nurse overhears her wistful whisper "I was going to marry him" and believes she's his fiancee. Suddenly, Lucy finds herself enveloped by the man's family, the Callaghans, a loving and demonstrative Catholic family. They hail her both as their son Peter's heroic rescuer, and as a welcome addition to the family (since they couldn't stand his most recent girlfriend, and since his somewhat high-powered lawyer life has meant he hasn't spent much time with them lately). Since Peter's in a coma, he can't tell them the truth...and Lucy likes the family so much she finds she's not quite sure how to tell them either, or even if she wants to.

The casting of the family is darn near perfect. Each one is unique and quirky, but taken as a whole (and they play almost every scene together) "the family" is a force to be reckoned with and almost a character all by itself. Glynis Johns (perhaps best known as the militant suffragette mother from Disney's Mary Poppins) plays Grandma Elsie, whose rip-roaring personality can slump into worried fragility at a moment's notice, sending the family into spasms of concern about her bad heart. Curmudgeonly next door neighbor Saul, played by the wonderful Jack Warden, knows just what it's like to be adopted by the Callaghans and so doesn't tell Lucy's secret even when he stumbles onto it. Peter Boyle (Young Frankenstein; "Everybody Loves Raymond") plays Ox, the big and big-hearted Dad whose gruff exterior barely hides the fact that he's an old softie underneath. Monica Keena plays little sister Mary, who thinks Lucy is absolutely fantastic. Micole Mercurio brings a terrific maternal sentimentality to her role as the mother of the clan, grounding many of the family scenes with her loving solidity.

And then there's Jack. He's Peter's brother, a working class every man who helps his Dad with the family business ("we buy furniture off dead people" Ox informs Lucy) even though his real love is making furniture and he longs to let his inner artist reign. Jack finds Lucy likable from the start, but there's something about her that bugs him. Make that two things: he's clearly attracted to her (and that's a no-no, since he believes her affections belong to his unconscious brother) and he also can't quite figure out how his success-hungry brother ended up with a girl so normal and...sweet. You can practically see the skepticism etched on his features every time he looks at Lucy, and every time he challenges her to prove that she and Peter are really together. He finally admits that he just doesn't think she's his brother's type, but Lucy's huffy "well, then whose type am I, Jack?" leaves him speechless.

Lucy, of course, has problems of her own. Her attraction to Jack is growing daily, but he's the wrong brother. It's not really nice to find yourself cheating...sort of...on a man in a coma, especially when he could wake up at any moment and tell the whole world he's never seen you before. In the meantime, she still has to fend off the clunky advances of her landlord's sweet slob of a son, Joe Jr. (brought memorably and even endearingly to life by Michael Rispoli) which keeps complicating her already complicated but growing friendship with Jack.

I won't tell you what happens when Peter wakes up, as of course he does -- you'll have much more fun watching that on your own. But I will tell you what makes this movie so enjoyable to watch over and over, at least for me. First, there's the lovely romance that blossoms between Jack and Lucy. They're both so ordinary that it doesn't feel like much of a imagined stretch for us to step into their lives, and the gentle and sometimes literally klutzy way they fall (or lean) into love may remind a number of us of our own best love stories. Pullman, not an exceptionally handsome man, brings a vulnerable, wistful gentleness to Jack, using his body posture, quiet voice and eyes to let everyone know (Lucy included) that he's a man who's fallen terribly in love but who wants very much to play fair and not hurt his brother. The sweet chemistry between Jack and Lucy is pure pleasure to watch.

But even more than the romance, what makes this film a gem is the way it reminds us all of our deepest longings to have a family and a home where we belong. Novelist John Irving once wrote that Christmas is a time of year when we look around and realize who's not home, and that can ring so true. It's never easy to feel lonely, but it's harder for many people at this time of year. This film plays on that bittersweet truth without being maudlin. Even though Lucy tells herself that she's not confessing the truth is because she's afraid Grandma will have a heart attack, deep down she knows Grandma's pretty strong and it's her own heart that's in a fragile place. She's not just falling in love with Jack, but with his whole family, and with the chance to be someone's sister, daughter, granddaughter and friend, as she finally admits. Bullock takes what could have been a completely light and fluffy role and infuses it with honest emotional depth.

All in all, While You Were Sleeping is a lovely fairy-tale gem. I'm happy to include it in my list of favorite Christmastime films.


Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good Date Movie