Main Cast: Jeff Daniels, Emily Bergl, Gil Bellows, Zach Grenier, Julian McMahon
Release Year: 2000
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
Plot
Ed Saxon (Jeff Daniels) is an English professor of some repute whose life is thrown into serious chaos when his wife, Eve, fails to return home one day. After a sleepless night, Ed phones the police, who find no trace of Eve, save her abandoned car. Later Ed, by now exhausted and disheveled, is visited by a young student (Emily Bergl) who is concerned about his absence from class and has stopped by to drop off some food for him. The student has an obvious attraction towards Ed, and he lets her in the house, where she has an accident that results in a nosebleed and a blood-soaked sweater that she leaves behind. Inevitably, detectives come calling on Ed, who is close to a fatigue-fueled nervous breakdown and nearly loses it completely. His fragile state is further exacerbated when he discovers a mysterious object under a chest of drawers, causing him to veer more precipitously towards an all-encompassing emotional collapse. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Kerry Barden - Casting, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Suzanne Smith - Casting, Kathryn Nixon - Costume Designer, Josh Zeman - First Assistant Director, Michael Walker - Director, David Leonard - Editor, Scott Macaulay - Executive Producer, Robin O'Hara - Executive Producer, Josh Zeman - Line Producer, Daniel Ouellette - Production Designer, Jim Denault - Cinematographer, Olivier Glaas - Producer, Paul Soucek - Sound/Sound Designer, Michael Walker - Screenwriter
Chasing Sleep is a 2000psychological thriller film written and directed by Michael Walker released to video in 2001. It depicts the reaction of a college professor who awakens to find his wife missing. It stars Jeff Daniels and Emily Bergl.
Viewers have been discussing over the internet (including on IMDb[1]) explanations of the film's ambiguous ending. Several theories have developed from these discussions:
One theory is that Ed Saxon did indeed kill his wife but is unable to accept what he has done. He tries to suppress these feelings of grief by taking pills and extra doses of medications which leads him to view hallucinations.
These hallucinations, as it has been theorized, are abstractions of the truth.
The large and deformed baby Saxon sees is a representation of the unborn child that was present within his wife's womb. The child is ugly and revolting since it is not Saxon's child but rather that of another man, thus Saxon finds the child to be an abomination.
The baby is cut up and murdered in the bath tub because that is representative of the location where Ed murdered his wife, along with the unborn child.
The eerie noises coming from the pipes represents the haunting reminder of the deed Saxon has done. He must have cut the body into small enough pieces to flush them away into the pipes, which is why Saxon is so worried about his plumbing issues and the film focuses so heavily on imagery of the pipes.
The neighbors next door are in fact non-existent; rather, they are representations of the troubled relationship between Saxon and his wife.
It has been suggested that the house is a metaphor for Saxon's mind. In fact, The Chicago Reader states that "Walker does pull an impressive Kubrickian trick by turning the antiseptic, deteriorating house into a metaphor for Daniels's mental state"[2]. There has been debate over which rooms represent which cognitive areas.
The director has remained silent about the meaning of the film's story thus creating no definite right or wrong answer. These are just the most commonly accepted theories among viewers.
Critical response
Reviews of Chasing Sleep have often quoted the film as being similar in tone to a David Lynch or a Roman Polanski film. The reason for this is because the film features the same type of surreal flourishes and ambiguous endings found within Lynch films while drawing heavily on the themes of isolation and alienation; motifs often found within Polanski's films. Reel Film Reviews even calls the film "a wonderfully creepy riff on Polanski's Repulsion"[3] and DVD Review finds the film to be "somewhere between Franz Kafka, David Lynch, and a plumber's nightmare"[4].
Reviews have been generally favorable towards the film, though none are declaring the film as particularly remarkable or innovative. Many review sites have given the film a respectable 3 out of 4 stars, including the internet review sites The Video Graveyard[5], Burnout Central[6], and Film Freak Central[7]. Boxoffice Magazine actually bestows a 3 1/2 out of 4 star rating, giving one of the most positive reviews of the film; it calls the film a "smoothly crafted psychological thriller"[8].
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has received a 60% rating on the tomatometer certifying the film as fresh[9].
The most common criticisms of the film amongst reviewers is that the film is slowly paced and ultimately becomes confusing, with seemingly no resolution or explanation to the proceedings. Apollo Guide says the film is "hard to sum up"[10] but adds that it is "grim and atmospheric" as well as being "dark and moody." Indeed, atmosphere is the most praised attribute amongst critics despite the fact the film is hard to decipher. Reel Film Reviews suggests the film "probably would have worked a whole lot better if it had taken a more objective view of the story" and not focused so much on surreal delusions and hallucinations of the main character, which made the film baffling[3].
Also, Critics are generally bestowing accolades upon the surprising good performance by Jeff Daniels. Critics have cited his performance as "great", "perfectly cast"[6], and even "brilliant"[11]. Reel Film Reviews says Daniels gives a "seriously unhinged performance"[3] while Boxoffice Magazine says that "Daniels is superb at unraveling the wormy anxieties and desperation at the heart of Ed's existence"[8].
2001 - Lund Fantastisk Film Festival - Official Selection
2001 - Sweden Fantastic Film Festival - Official Selection[13]
The film did not receive a theatrical release within the United States, although Lions Gate Films bought the rights at the Toronto Film Festival. The film instead ran on the festival circuit for a year before premiering on video on September 16, 2001, by Lions Gate. It was later self-distributed in the US, after its video release, and it played in theaters in L.A., Seattle, Portland and Chicago.
2001 - Sweden Fantastic Film Festival - Won - Jury Grand Prize
Film locations
Chelsea, Michigan, USA
Jackson, Michigan, USA
Stockbridge, Michigan, USA
Trivia
At the end of the closing credits, there is a note from the director stating that he was not going 92mph and should receive a pardon and an apology. This is obviously targeted at police and Walker was assumedly picked of for speeding sometime around the making of the film.
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