Sleepless in Seattle (2000, VHS)

I've quit smoking and have spent a few sleepless nights myself recently. Last night, I popped in a timeless classic known as Sleepless in Seattle and enjoyed 105 minutes of pure nostalgia and romance from my favorite person on the big screen, Tom Hanks.

The story: Sam Baldwin, played by Tom Hanks, is a widowed father who becomes an overnight Bachelor of the Year Radio Celebrity thanks to the good but overzealous intentions of his eight year old son. His son calls a local radio station and tells the resident psychologist "My Daddy needs a new wife". Hanks reluctantly gets on the phone and starts discussing his late wife. The psychiatrist asks "Can you tell me what you loved about your late wife, Sam?" Tom Hanks answers: "Well, that depends..how long is your radio show?" You could almost hear the sighs of 2,000 women who start to call the radio station, looking for love and romance.

Meg Ryan is a reporter, engaged in a bland relationship to Walter, and she also hears the radio spot and starts to fall in love with the persona of Tom Hanks. She is torn between the idyllic love that she knows must be out there, the true love that she has only heard about versus the safety and comfort of the current relationship she is in.

One of the golden spotlights of the movie which can be easily missed if you don't look for it is the performance of Rosie O'Donnell as Meg Ryan's sidekick. Watch the expression on her face whenever Meg Ryan goes on and on about her "walter". Rosie does that nose snarling, eye crossing twitch face that only Rosie can perfect so well, and it had me in stitches each and every time.

Meg Ryan delivers a superb acting job of the ditzy but determined blonde who vassilates between watching Cary Grant movies and tearjerkers and remaining sensible and non-confused. It was refreshing to "re-watch" Meg Ryan again back in the early nineties, before she became so jaded and so angry at the world and so full of herself.

This movie also has one of the best soundtracks for romance and love with original cuts from Nat King Cole, Harry Connick, and Carly Simon's rendition of Wee Small Hours of the Morning.

Sleepless in Seattle: a clandestine meeting, a struggle for Destiny, for two people who don't know each other-yet-but are destined to somehow become part of each other's life. This is a wonderful movie perfect for the family, and the ultimate in what is known in the movie-going circles as "chick flicks"-you'll laugh.....you'll cry.....Once again, Tom Hanks proves why he is my favorite all time actor.

If you can't sleep, you might as well snuggle up with Tom for a while and enjoy some good romance.