Light Sleeper | | Cast : | Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon | | Director : | Paul Schrader | | Studio : | Lions Gate Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | January 01, 1992 | | DVD Released Date : | March 26, 2002 | | Language : | English (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 20, 2005 | | Summary | Its climax seems to belong to another movie | Content
 | John LeTour (Willem Dafoe) is a recovered drug addict who spends his lonely life drifting around the city by night, delivering drugs for his boss, Ann (Susan Sarandon). He worries about his future, but he is firmly enmeshed in a lifestyle from which escape does not seem like a realistic option. A bit of hope creeps back into his life when he encounters an old flame (Dana Delany) from his days as a user and the possibility of rekindled romance becomes his lifeline. This is a very low-key film for most of its length, but its climactic explosion of violence provides a jarring change of pace that plays as if writer/director Paul Schrader couldn't figure out how to end the film. Delany's character is rather off-handedly changed from a figure with real dramatic purpose to a mere plot point that sets up the justification for a bloodbath. The performances are excellent and Schrader is a talented filmmaker, but he falters here./ |
| Rating | | | Date | April 12, 2005 | | Summary | Paul Schrader grows into being something of an optimist | Content
| The irony is that while an obvious case can be made that the best way to appreciate Paul Schrader's 1992 drama "Light Sleeper" is to have seen the previous two entries in his "nocturnal alienation" trilogy, "Taxi Driver" and "American Gigolo," those comparisons are the Achilles heel for the film as well. The commonalities between the angry young Travis Bickle, the narcissistic Julian Kay, and Willem Dafoe's John LeTour are obvious since they are loners with a variety of night jobs. But what is more important is the way Schrader's archetypal hero has progressed over the course of these three films to the point where this last version is able to take stock of his life and realize he is actually looking forward to something in his life.
This is rather difficult for LaTour because the omnipresent fact of this film is that his past is close behind. Although he has stopped doing drugs, he does deliveries for his boss lady, Ann (Susan Sarandon), who keeps threatening to go legit and do cosmetics rather than sell drugs. The other person delivering drugs to Ann's upscale clientele is Robert (David Clennon), and he is interested in changing careers too. So far the change is just all talk but LaTour starts wondering about his own future and does not see much of one. When he is not "working" he spends his time filling up stacks of composition books while drinking wine. He has tried being an actor and dreams of being a musician, but apparently has not noticed that he is actually a writer.
The catalyst for change becomes a couple of chance encounters with his old girl friend, Marianne (Dana Delany), who does not really want to remember the good times they shared when they were both addicts. She is back in town to sit by the bedside of her dying mother at a local hospital and LaTour becomes captivated by the idea that she represents the road not taken and an opportunity for him to change his life. But even though he is able to get back into her bed and have a moment of sheer happiness, Marianne cannot see him as a good future. For her, he is only a reminder of a bad past, and although his heart and motives are pure he is a slippery slope for her despite his best intentions.
The problem is that at the moment of crisis it is hard not to see Schrader's film as returning to territory quite similar to the final reel of "Taxi Driver." I liked the optimistic revelations of LaTour's final speech in the film, but how we get from the film's low point to the prospect of a happy ending somewhere down the road is missing the necessary causal connections to make the conclusion truly fulfilling. Fortunately the performances cover the narrative gaps as Schrader spins his little morality play about the decline and fall of the drug culture. There is never really a point where Dafoe's character is a bad person and the same can be said for Sarandon's as well, while it is Delany whose character jumps the rails when she is being asked to anchor another person's life. "Light Sleeper" is the weakest part of this faux trilogy, but it has value both as that last act and on its own terms. |
| Rating | | | Date | November 04, 2004 | | Summary | "It's cologne. I'm a sucker for that airplane stuff." | Content
| This movie really is a mixed bag. I'd been looking for it for years, and I suppose expectations had far exceeded the actual film. Paul Schrader never fails to deliver in terms of gritty reality with some actual morals ("Taxi Driver", of course, is the best example), so maybe I expected another "Taxi".
The amazing thing about this film is the sharp, sharp contrast between the plot and the way the characters act. William Dafoe plays a drugdealer, and Susan Sarandon plays his main connection, but at no point do we see either of them as villains. Eating Chinese, yucking it up, laughing with one another about the old days and certain forms of art, there are moments when you think you're watching a sitcom rather than a movie about a guy with a vendetta trying to climb out of the sewer of dealing/addiction.
John (Dafoe's character) has some real bright shiny moments, and I'm not kidding. It's like he's the Mr. Rogers of drugdealers. This fat guy is whigging out on coke and crystal meth and Dafoe goes, "I remember when your wife was here, when you had a life. Come on". What is he, a drug counselor? The jazz music just don't work as well as it did in "Taxi", because nothing is really going on that seems all that dreadful.
There is a reality check, however, amongst the "Friends" atmosphere the film creates. Dafoe's former lover, who now shuns him, gets strung out after her mother dies and jump off a hotel balcony owned by one of Susan Sarandon's customers. Hence Dafoe's decision to buy a gun.
I have to say I've never seen anything quite like this. It manages to turn drugdealers into characters from "Today's Special". It doesn't glorify it or not glorify it. You have to see this movie to believe it.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 14, 2003 | | Summary | Humane | Content
| Unusual in the usual world of American movie theater. Thought provoking and very consequential, certainly not unpredictable but somehow enriching and very humane. The characters of drug dealers turn out to be very likeable and egzistential.
There are many weaknesses in this plot - violent end seems to be repeating "Taxi Driver" in a sort of casual "Crime And Punishment" way, nevertheless it is very simplistic. Drug dealer is apparently more in a character of Paul Schreader than a realistic immersion into the psyche of a drug dealer. The main character narates too much as if we have a problem to understand his actions, unnecessary in my view. And there is a genuine bad guy as if to create the vent for the eventual explosion at the end. He is reduced to inhumanity perhaps to underline the humanity of others that some of us would have trouble accepting. All in all few weak places and yet because these types of intelligent movies are so rare, it is so much beyond the typical Holywood entertainment sewer. All the actors are doing great work as expected. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 14, 2003 | | Summary | Humane | Content
| Unusual in the usual world of American movie theater. Thought provoking and very consequential, certainly not unpredictable but somehow enriching and very humane. The characters of drug dealers turn out to be very likeable and egzistential.
There are many weaknesses in this plot - violent end seems to be repeating "Taxi Driver" but it is more like "Crime And Punishment," nevertheless it is very simplistic. Drug dealer is apparently more of a character of Paul Schreader than a realistic immersion into the psyche of a drug dealer. Main characters narates too much as if we have a problem to understand his actions, unneccessary in my view. And there is a genuine bad guy to create the vent for the eventual explosion at the end. He is reduced, reduced to inhumanity as if to underline the humanity of others that some of us would have a trouble accepting. All in all a lot of weak places and yet because these types of intelligent movies are so rare, it is so much beyond the usual Holywood entertainment sewer. |
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