Sleepless in Seattle
TriStar Pictures | Release Date: June 25, 1993 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesVincent Canby
Not since "Love Story" has there been a movie that so shrewdly and predictably manipulated the emotions for such entertaining effect. Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Ephron homes in on what's been missing in movies and in life: ardor, longing and smart talk about the screwed-up notions that pass for love. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Consequently, Ephron is forced to shape and integrate the twin halves of the picture, and she does a splendid job - the intercutting is always fluid and never mechanical. Better yet, the script keeps surprising us, setting up stock situations and then pulling away from a stock treatment. Read full review
90
Washington PostHal Hinson
In Sleepless, though, we're as stuck on these people as the director is, and it puts us in a receptive, forgiving mood. We fall -- and I think a lot of people will fall hard for this movie -- even though we know we shouldn't. Read full review
90
Washington PostJoe Brown
There are no surprises in Sleepless, and the audience is ahead of the characters every step of the way. But people seem to like it that way. And, hey, it works like a charm. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMichael Wilmington
We don't make those kind of Lubitsch-Wilder-Capra movies anymore, because it's hard to kid about what goes on behind bedroom walls when the bedroom doors have long since been flung open. So Ephron invents strategies to keep us, teased, outside the boudoir. [25 Jun 1993 Pg.F1]
80
Time Out LondonTom Huddleston
It’s infuriatingly irresistible. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is a dreamy, romantic fantasy whose mood falls somewhere between magic and reality. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Ephron develops this story with all of the heartfelt sincerity of a 1950s tearjerker (indeed, the movie's characters spend a lot of time watching "An Affair to Remember" and using it as their romantic compass). Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineStaff(not credited)
Superbly acted, beautifully photographed, and resolutely warm and fuzzy, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE is a romantic treat. Read full review
70
VarietyBrian Lowry
Yet for all the enjoyable flourishes, and there are many, Ephron keeps pausing to remind us, through various contrivances, that this is a movie, making it hard for anyone to really get lost in the story. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Nora Ephron, who wrote and directed this, repeatedly alludes to the 1957 "An Affair to Remember" as her principal point of reference, yet at no point does she indicate any awareness of what makes that tragicomic love story sublime and this one merely cutesy. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The movie is so prefab, so plastically aware of being ''corny,'' ''romantic,'' and ''old-fashioned,'' that it feels programmed to make you fall in love with it. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
The result is sweet and moody, and richly photographed by Sven Nykvist, but you can't help feeling shortchanged; Hanks and Ryan have quick wits, and funny faces to match—they should be striking sparks off each other, not mooching around waiting for something to happen. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Schickel
For clever as it is conceptually, it violates the most basic rule of romantic- comedy construction. If boy doesn't meet girl, then the drama of boy losing girl and the final satisfaction of boy getting girl cannot happen. Read full review
50
USA TodaySusan Wloszczyna
Yet, when it all clicks, Ephron is able to make the familiar sparkle anew. [25 Jun 1993 Pg. 01.D]
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
While celebrating the lushly romantic, it also tweaks the tradition so that Sleepless in Seattle ends up something akin to a feature-length Taster's Choice commercial. Read full review
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