The Fifth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 19

I had no interest in watching 1995’s While You Were Sleeping. Ever.

I haven’t entirely swerved rom-coms in my annual advent compendium of movies that are slightly Christmas(ish) but the ones I have included have, by and large, been movies I’d already seen. Because sometimes I have to watch rom-coms. It’s part of the deal of being married. At least it is in my marriage.

But Mrs Proclaims has never insisted on me sitting through this one, possibly because it came out long before we had even met each other. Indeed I’d managed to get through the 26 years since it was released without ever seeing it. And this is all the more impressive because I have known this movie has some pretty solid Christmas(ish) credentials and I have clearly been scraping the barrel since year the third year of doing this December countdown.

Anyway I couldn’t avoid it any longer, not least because it was clearly accessible through one of the (far-too-many) movie-streaming services that I subscribe to.

And, much to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is full of the usual rom-com tropes and it’s entirely implausible on a number of levels. But Sandra Bullock is nothing short of charming in the lead role. And to be fair, it does live up to the ‘com’ aspect of rom-com rather well.

Score for Christmasishness

There is enough to the premise of this movie to suggest that it could work if set at a different time of year, but it is definitely enhanced by the festive setting and the movie fully embraces its Christmasishness. So it’s full marks from me.