Themes: Mothers and Sons, Haunted By the Past, Battling Illness
Main Cast: Jacqueline Bisset, Martha Plimpton, Nick Stahl, Amy Madigan, Frankie R. Faison
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 107 minutes
Plot
Two women connected by family are drawn closer by fate in this low-key drama. Frances (Jacqueline Bisset) is a woman in her early fifties who had already begun to sense time was running out for her when she learned that she has cancer. While Frances is fighting the disease through medical treatment, she decides it's a good idea to do some travelling before it's too late, and she pays a visit to Bob (Seymour Cassel), a former boyfriend who now owns a farm in rural Pennsylvania. To Bob's surprise, Frances strikes up a fast friendship with his wife Betty (Peggy Gormley), and Frances shares a confession with her -- while Frances maintains a close relationship with her son Morgan (Nick Stahl), she also had a daughter by Bob that she put up for adoption, and she's not certain if she should track down the child while there's still time. Coincidentally, Frances' daughter is Rebecca (Martha Plimpton), a successful lawyer who has begun to express a curiosity about her birth parents. Rebecca has been hired by a large communications firm to deal with the paperwork regarding the purchase of a radio station in Florida, and while in the Sunshine State, Rebecca gets to know the station's manager, Jimmy (Frankie R. Faison). As Jimmy and Rebecca ease into a short-term romance, he shares stories about the "Sleepy Time Gal," a mysterious female disc jockey who worked at the station back in the '50s; what neither Jimmy nor Rebecca know is that the Sleepy Time Gal was actually Frances. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
This hushed drama from indie maverick Christopher Munch never received a theatrical release despite some good reviews upon its premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Starring a superb Jacqueline Bisset as a woman dying of cancer, The Sleepy Time Gal is about the search for identity -- a search that, Munch suggests, lasts a lifetime. Even as Rebecca (Martha Plimpton), an Ivy League-educated career woman, seeks the woman who gave her up for adoption when she was an infant, Frances (Bisset) wishes to meet the daughter she gave away before she dies. Flitting back and forth through time, Sleepy Time Gal imparts the feeling of a life fully lived. A common visual motif is a stray cut here and there to an inscription, a gravestone or a memorial (Frances was a history buff), subtly conveying a keen sense of mortality, as well as underscoring the movie's obsession with the past. Almost European in its low-key approach to prime dramatic material, the somewhat contrived plot and stilted dialogue are mitigated by Munch's understated, delicate visuals. Though hardly perfect, the movie's evocation of the mystical connections between parent and child -- and the impalpable legacy that one bequeaths another -- leaves a poignant imprint. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide
Melissa K. Frankel - Art Director, Jody Asnes - Art Director, Kerry Barden - Casting, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Suzanne Smith - Casting, Michael Stipe - Co-producer, Jim McKay - Co-producer, Kristen Anacker - Costume Designer, Christopher Munch - Director, Christopher Munch - Editor, Annette Davey - Editor, Linda Miller - Line Producer, Rob Sweeney - Cinematographer, Christopher Munch - Producer, Ruth Charny - Producer, Fernando Muga - Sound/Sound Designer, Christopher Munch - Screenwriter
Frances (Jacqueline Bisset) has enjoyed a variety of jobs during her adult life and is the mother of two sons, each by a different husband. She also gave birth to a daughter following an affair she had with a married man, but was forced by her mother to give up the baby for adoption. Frances attempts to search for child she gave away, but she is diagnosed with cancer before she is able to conduct a thorough search. As Frances is attended by one of her sons (Nick Stahl) and a nurse (Amy Madigan), she is unaware that her lost daughter, who is now a corporate lawyer (Martha Plimpton), is conducting her own search for her missing birth mother. Part of her search takes her to a Daytona Beach, Florida, radio station where Frances worked years ago as a late-night disc jockey under the moniker of the Sleepy Time Gal.[1]
Production
The Sleepy Time Gal was the third film directed by Christopher Munch, whose previous work included The Hours and Times (1991) and Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day (1996). Munch shot the film over a two-and-half year period, and he later told an interviewer the extended stop-and-start shooting schedule was dictated by the lack of finances. "I didn't have a big enough chunk of money at any one point to do the whole thing," he said. "It really was held together by chewing gum and a lot of care."[2]
Munch also stated the inspiration for The Sleepy Time Gal was based on his mother's experience in giving birth to a baby girl out of wedlock and giving the infant away for adoption. But unlike the characters in his film, Munch made no attempt to actively locate his long-lost half-sister.[2]
Distribution
The Sleepy Time Gal was first shown at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. However, it was not acquired by a major distributor for theatrical release. Later that year, it was cited by the Village Voice in its annual survey of the year's best undistributed films. The film had a television premiere instead of a theatrical debut, with a debut broadcast on the Sundance Channel on March 29, 2002. [3]
After its television broadcast, The Sleepy Time Gal had several commercial theatrical playdates across the U.S. When the film played in New York City in May 2002, film critic Dennis Lim of the Village Voice praised Bisset’s acting, citing a “candid and complex performance that for all its gossamer, death-haunted poetics…conveys the irreducible weight of a singular life.” [4] When the played in Chicago in November 2002, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert praised Munch's screenplay for being “tenderly observant of his characters.”[5]
The Sleepy Time Gal was released on DVD on January 28, 2003, by Sundance Home Channel Entertainment.[6]
