In lieu of the regular round-up (which will be posted some time tomorrow, Sunday, as I am travelling today), I bring you a guest post by Armitagebesotted who has written down her impressions of Sleepwalker.
My reactions to seeing Sleepwalker, having read many fan discussions in the last few weeks, including some with spoilers, because knowing details of a who-done-it in advance doesn’t wreck it for me. (Actually, I appreciate the mental assist.)
My overriding bewilderment going into this was: Why are my fellow fans–people whose opinions I respect and trust–spending SO much time discussing this movie? The last time we all agreed a production’s content was confusing and inscrutable was Berlin Station season 1. With that show, most got disgusted and declared it either bad writing, or simply a bad show.
I wondered why everyone was more patient with this movie. Why were they making so much effort to explain its plot/meaning? Why weren’t they dismissing it? So I sat down to watch.
My reactions:
- Sleepwalker the movie is definitely an experience of waiting for the Armitage to appear and not much more.
- Without RA in it, I would never have stuck with this mediocre movie for more than 5 minutes.
- I was glad I knew all the spoilers, because I would have been really annoyed at having to work too hard at “figuring it out.” As is, I was perhaps less annoyed, but still bored and impatient throughout. And I still didn’t “get” the ending. And don’t care.
- I have the same comments as everyone else about how seriously ugly, stupid and distracting ALL of O’Reilly’s costumes are. Especially the weird socks. Did anyone mention the socks?
- Speaking of waiting for the Armitage to appear…as always, almost any incidental appearance is swoon-worthy, and there are plenty of high-octane punches:
RA saying “I’m not married.” I can imagine listening to that over and over on a loop and pray some capable fangirl will make that “loop” as soon as possible. - RA in scruffy clothes and work boots. The tan leather kind that Carhartt men wear, like THESE. (Janine, are you listening?)
- RA reaching for a woman’s hand to take it protectively. He wants to take care of her. Sigh.
- Beautiful shot of RA’s long neck from the back, while wearing scruffy t-shirt and…work boots. Okay, the work boots don’t appear in a shot of his neck, but…did I mention…work boots?
- Armitage carrying woman in his arms saying, “I’m taking you home.” Yes, sir, please do.
Exhibit A. Richard Armitage as Dr Scott White in Sleepwalker. Image courtesy of Marvista Entertainment.
- RA spooning woman lying on bed saying, “Let’s go to sleep.” Yes, sir. Will do.
- Woman sleeps lying on Armitage’s chest, his arms wrapped around her. (At 1:05:27, for anyone who needs a viewing aid.)
- 1:05:45 Woman wakes up and gently paws strokes Dr. Scott White’s beard as he sleeps. Fan fiction comes true, anyone?
Have we ticked all the fangirl boxes yet? Not quite. I continue:
9. 1:06:37 North & South hand porn redux as Dr. White hands woman cup of coffee and their fingers touch just so…. And we wonder why RA took this role. He knew scenes like that were going to wind us up!
10. 1:12:21 Distraught heroine gets special consoling from Dr. Scott White. Oh yeah, baby, that’ll make ya feel better.
11. 1:13:02 Very nice skin shot.
Dumb movie? Who cares. There’s material to play with for years, ladies. Can’t wait to buy the DVD.
Parting details:
- Category of “eeeewwwwww”: Sitting-on-toilet shot (of O’Reilly, not Armitage)–tacky and totally unnecessary.
- Ahna O’Reilly is wow beautiful. And she delivers a convincing performance of acting mentally unstable.
ETA: Totally forgot to say thank you to Armitagebesotted for sharing her impressions with us. If anyone else ever needs a platform to share a review or a memory or anything else Armitage-related, pop me a line and we’ll organise a guest post!
Guylty Pleasure 
Pingback: 2017 Armitage Weekly Round-up #37 | Guylty Pleasure
sorry i dumped most of my thoughts on the earlier post but yeah, i’m not quite as entranced with it either, but i did feel it was a step up from BOF which i really really struggled to get through at all 🙂 I also did replay a few scenes quite a few times and in my previous word dump i had forgotten about the beard stroke which you so nicely reminded me of. It made me smile big as well, don’t we all want to do that? 😉
And i loved how he stroked her head and that neck and the work boots. And that thigh which i did not expect to see.
I watched that scene back a few times because i honestly found it fascinating how they found a corridor which he could just span with his arms like that.Definitely beautiful that. It’s probably very much a preconception but i was mesmerised by the physical ease of his movements and how he managed to support her one handedly and move about while she is essentially attached to his thigh. Just like when he stomped off with Reba. I am sure it does cost effort but he makes it look so natural, moving with such grace and ease with a lady attached to him, irresistible 😉 i want gifs of that too ;-))
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I have to agree with everything that Guylty said about this movie. when I was watching this movie, I kept thinking that the reason she wore baby doll clothes and carol brady’s clothes (the brady bunch mom)is that she worked part-time as a stripper and wore them to please the men’s weird fetish. I loved all the scenes that had Mr. Richard Armitage, but my favorites were the ones were he was protecting her and comforting her and when he fought off the attacker in his house.
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LOL – Carol Brady. I think you are on to something there… The costume choices certainly reflect a more male-centric fantasy (which was blindingly obvious in the wet-nightie scene where Sarah was walking with her white nightie through the rain…)
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