Review: Chasing Sleep


Jeff Daniels’ wife is missing, he can’t sleep (though he seems to have trouble keeping track of the time), the police (led by Gil Bellows) are possibly suspicious of him, and oh yeah...he’s starting to lose his freaking mind. Did I mention the severed finger that just won’t flush down the toilet? Well there’s that, too. Meanwhile, college professor Daniels is also being tempted by one of his lovely students (Emily Bergl) who makes a home visit when he fails to turn up for work. Julian McMahon plays one of his wife’s colleagues, whom she may be having an affair with, whilst Zach Grenier plays a not very helpful police shrink.

 

Written and directed by debutant Mike Walker, this 2000 horror/thriller is one of those films that you feel like you’ve seen a bunch of times before. It’s typical “Twilight Zone” or Stephen King stuff about insomnia, missing persons, holes in the wall, old drain pipes and so forth. Nothing you really need to see again. And that’s a shame, because it features a perfectly fine performance by the generally reliable Jeff Daniels. He’s an interesting actor who generally plays losers and spineless guys, and yet there’s always something innately decent and well-meaning that Daniels tries to bring to the characters. He’s interesting and on edge early here, but without going bug-eyed Nic Cage crazy from the get-go.

 

The mediocre supporting cast featuring TV actors Gil Bellows and Aussie ex-pat Julian McMahon don’t help, nor does the most confusingly lensed sex scene I’ve ever seen. Emily Bergl looks perfectly lovely naked, but it almost feels as if they need to move the camera around and change angles to compensate for how crap she and Daniels are in bed. Which is weird because it’s simulated. Huh? Meanwhile, things really only turn to horror when the weird overgrown baby turns up. Seriously, what the hell is that?

 

It’s a clichĂ©d film with a terrible ending, but Daniels should be commended, he looks seriously frazzled by the end. There’s nothing wrong with this, it’s just that it’s been done to death already. Watch “Repulsion” instead, that’s a masterpiece.

 

Rating: C

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