While You Were Sleeping
Buena Vista Pictures | Release Date: April 21, 1995 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Christopher Harris
But Turteltaub surprises us. He has the kind of unerring comic touch - easily able to carry his audience from smart dialogue to heart-tugging emotion to something awfully close to slapstick - that should serve the movie world well. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
This is a formula film, but it has the kind of good cheer and fine tuning that occasionally give slickness a good name. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Schickel
What is startling is how well While You Were Sleeping recaptures the true spirit of the best kind of modern fairy tale -- classic romantic comedy. Read full review
80
EmpireStaff(not credited)
Bullock is a delight, disarmingly kooky, pleasing to look at, and - as she has previously proved - a gifted comedic actress. Read full review
80
NewsweekJeff Giles
The film delivers the warm fuzzies without apology, and you find yourself giving in. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
The required resolution is a long time in coming, but there's plenty to keep you diverted, including the light backchat among the semi-weirdos who make up the brothers' family, and Bullock's ridiculously watchable performance. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The chief reason that we feel generous toward the film is Bullock herself. She tickles. All the others are good, especially Pullman and Gallagher, but she's the one we want to spend time with. [22 May 1995, Pg.28]
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It's a feel-good film, warm and good-hearted, and as it was heading for its happy ending, I was still a little astonished how much I was enjoying it. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Stack
It's a feel-good deal you can take the whole family to, or even better, a date. And this almost cuddly film, built on a farfetched case of mistaken identity, delivers plenty of fun. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineStaff(not credited)
While You Were Sleeping is a mild romantic comedy rooted in class anxiety, but it's nice to see perennial loser-in-love Pullman ("Sleepless in Seattle", "The Last Seduction") get some. Respect, that is. Read full review
70
VarietyLeonard Klady
Director Jon Turteltaub has a smooth style suited to classic farce and knows just how to pace the material to accentuate the positive. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Only when you look closer do you realize that While You Were Sleeping exhibits precious few genuine feelings. It's a movie cranked out by machine, about supposedly delightfully idiosyncratic characters who only do what they do because the highly structured plot requires it. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The plot runs out of steam just past the one-hour mark and the charade, although necessary to the story, goes on for too long. The ending is, of course, the requisite happy one, but it seems a little anticlimactic. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesPeter Rainer
It's a movie about the warm feeling you get when you belong to a family, and, throughout, the thermostat is turned up high. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It's charming, in its own little way, but really, this film has as much substance as a Cirrus cloud, despite fine turns from Boyle as the family patriarch and Warden as Godfather Saul. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
In general, the script is just slightly above sitcom level, but a few lines, owing to great delivery by terrific actors, raise this a few notches on the comedy scale. Read full review
50
Washington PostHal Hinson
Its attitude seems to be: You met her and liked her in "Speed," now get to know her better. But while it's easy to like her, liking the movie is another matter. Read full review
50
USA TodaySusan Wloszczyna
A romantic comedy has to woo an audience into taking a chance on love. While You Were Sleeping is that kind of sneaky charmer, more riveting than ribbit-ing. [21 Apr 1995, Pg.01.D]
40
Washington PostKevin McManus
A wobbly romantic comedy, Sleeping plays its romantic elements just right, but badly botches the comedy. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The plot of this 1995 romantic comedy, directed by Jon Turteltaub ("Cool Runnings") from a script by Daniel G. Sullivan and Fredric Lebow, is pretty stupid throughout, and the filmmakers show no compunction in shaking its silliness in your face, but the film's casual warmth may make you tolerate some of the shortcomings. Read full review
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