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The Perfect Sleep

R Released Mar 13, 2009 1h 39m Action Drama Mystery & Thriller List
38% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 25% Audience Score 10,000+ Ratings
A tortured man returns to a city he never wanted to see again to save the woman he loves. Read More Read Less

Critics Reviews

View All (13) Critics Reviews
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times There are shadows on top of shadows. It's the film noir universe, all right. What does the title refer to? Perhaps to what you will enjoy during the film. Rated: 1.5/4 May 7, 2009 Full Review Jeannette Catsoulis New York Times Easy on the eyes but brutal on the ears, The Perfect Sleep fuses Shakespearean tragedy and noir iconography into a strange, lovely, leaden ball of confusion. Rated: 2/5 Mar 27, 2009 Full Review Lou Lumenick New York Post The disjointed story is no more comprehensible than The Big Sleep. Though Alter is no Howard Hawks and Pardoe and Sanchez are no Bogie and Bacall, this movie looks great. You won't nap through The Perfect Sleep. Rated: 2/4 Mar 27, 2009 Full Review Anton Bitel Eye for Film might not strictly be novel, or original, or even entertaining - but it cuts to something quintessential about cinema, as if to say: with visuals like these, what does it matter? Jul 28, 2010 Full Review Avi Offer NYC Movie Guru Well-directed with exquisite visuals, but suffers from an often dull, convoluted and confusing plot as well as too much style over substance. Rated: 5.0/10 Mar 29, 2009 Full Review Prairie Miller NewsBlaze Nothing makes much sense in this ridiculously high minded narrative, but the emptiness is brimming with intensity and attitude, along with some inspired night vision footage and dialogue delivered as over the top self-serious soundbites. Mar 27, 2009 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member I've always enjoyed any film related to noir, but this one was just a step too far - yes, it has impressive visuals for such a low-budget movie, but does the plot actually go anywhere? It's a muddle of past, present and future tenses without explanation, and the characterisation is pretty poor; the anti-hero, or whatever he is, talks about dames that the audience has never seen before, and we're expected to understand exactly what's going on. It's gory and patriarchal, like any neo-noir should be, but there's always the sense of unoriginality - the film strives to do something different, but ends up just using the cliches associated with noir without even entertaining. The only reason you'd watch this film is for the cinematography and visual style but, even then, you're probably better off watching the actually good "Sin City". It's like "The Lady from Shanghai" on acid. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Audience Member You might not have the perfect sleep once you start watching this movie, but you'll come close enough. I wanted to turn this off after 10 minutes but stuck it out. Not worth it. At least I got a huge belly laugh out of the closing credits song. Then I saw it was written and sung by Dave Vanian and I was depressed. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member a guilty pleasure. although not superbly well acted (except for tony amendola and anton pardoe who also wrote & produced it). for something that's obviously low budget... give pardoe a break. film noir fan!!! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member always liked noir gen films.... Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member forfaerdelig kedelig og amatoeragtig film-noir pastice. Titlen bliver tragikomisk da jeg praktisk talt ikke kunne holde mig vaagen under filmen GAAAB Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member "Will I ever get it?" Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Perfect Sleep

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Movie Info

Synopsis A tortured man returns to a city he never wanted to see again to save the woman he loves.
Director
Jeremy Alter
Producer
Jeremy Alter, Keith Kjarval, Anton Pardoe
Screenwriter
Anton Pardoe
Production Co
Unified Pictures
Rating
R (Brief Drug Use|Violence|Some Language)
Genre
Action, Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 13, 2009, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 6, 2016
Runtime
1h 39m