the latter being the actress Ephron had in mind for the character Annie. While Arch had also written the female role for Ryan due to her performance in When Harry Met Sally, he had envisioned Kevin Costner in the role of Sam. Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer, Demi Moore and Madonna, but Ephron was determined to cast Ryan, having enjoyed working with her on When Harry Met Sally... Having grown weary of playing goofy, immature characters by this point in his career, Despite her interest in Hanks, Ephron was not entirely convinced the actor could play a romantic leading man in the vein of Cary Grant until she met him for the first time. approximately two minutes of screen time. Nathan Watt was originally cast as Sam's son Jonah, Jason Schwartzman had also auditioned for the role. Comedian Rosie O'Donnell was cast as Becky, Annie's best friend and coworker. O'Donnell had made her film debut in A League of Their Own (1992) the previous year, appearing alongside both Hanks and Pullman. O'Donnell credits Ephron's son Jacob Bernstein with helping her secure the role, as he was a fan of her friend Madonna, with whom the comedian had also starred in A League of Their Own. specifically emulating the way she walks and talks in order to convey "the funny, caustic best friend with a heart of gold" role she had wanted to play since deciding to become an actor. She noted her experience was particularly different from A League of Their Own, which had been largely improvisational compared to Ephron's organized directorial style. She credits Hanks with teaching her that writers should always provide the main actor with something to play off of, so they are never passive or idle during a scene. Ephron eventually cast her in a larger role in the romantic comedy You've Got Mail (1998), also starring Hanks and Ryan.
The studio was initially denied permission to shoot some of the film's final scenes at the Empire State Building,
The film's costumes were designed by Judy Ruskin, who designed most of Ryan's wardrobe. Ruskin was careful to dress Ryan in modest, loose-fitting clothes to demonstrate Annie's "pure heart", as per Ephron's direction. Ephron and production designer Jeffrey Townsend deliberately limited the use of the color red during the first hour of Sleepless in Seattle. The color appears more frequently after Sam and Annie first pass each other at the airport in Seattle, and a soccer team wearing red uniforms spills into the crowd between them.
| rev2 = Music Week
| rev2score =
| rev3 = Philadelphia Inquirer
| rev3score =
The film was originally to have been scored by John Barry, but when given a list of twenty songs he had to put in the film, he quit. The film was ultimately scored by Marc Shaiman. Peter Guber, head of Sony Studios, wanted to use Celine Dion and Clive Griffin's duet "When I Fall in Love" in the final scene, but Ephron insisted on using "Make Someone Happy" by Jimmy Durante.
| 7
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{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ 2004 weekly chart performance for Sleepless in Seattle
! scope="col"| Chart (2004)
! scope="col"| Peak<br>position
|-
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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ 1993 year-end chart performance for Sleepless in Seattle
! scope="col"| Chart (1993)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)
| 38
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! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 18
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{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ 1994 year-end chart performance for Sleepless in Seattle
! scope="col"| Chart (1994)
! scope="col"| Position
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! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 56
|}
Certifications
Dreams Come True's "Winter Song" is the theme song for the Japanese version, although the lyrics are in English.
Themes
Luchina Fisher of ABC News summarized Sleepless in Seattle as "the story of a kid who plays matchmaker between his widower father and a woman having second thoughts about her fiancé". Hanks believes falling in love with someone's voice is a relatable catalyst, explaining that "We've all experienced something like that".
The Baltimore Sun<nowiki/>'s Stephen Hunter described the film as a "shameless romantic fantasy" and its heroine as "a sort of icon of nearly pure '50s innocence", with Ephron herself dressing Ryan's character to resemble a Breck girl. Calling the film "a throwback to the great romantic comedies of the '30s and '40s", Common Sense Media described Sleepless in Seattle as "a fairy tale that encourages viewers to believe that true love and destiny will conquer all obstacles". According to Tyler Coates of Flavorwire, Ephron uses An Affair to Remember to challenge "the cinematic joys that predated her own films", observing that the 1957 film brings at least four female characters to tears throughout Sleepless in Seattle. which Annie routinely refers to as guide about her own love life. Several scenes from An Affair to Remember are shown throughout the film, When Annie finally meets Sam atop the Empire State Building, the theme from An Affair to Remember plays. One of the film's major recurring themes is "love in the movies" and cinema's influence over how viewers perceive love,
According to a review published by Encyclopedia.com, Sleepless in Seattle "explores the differences between men and women when it comes to love and romance". However, Coates noted that, despite its meta commentary about classic Hollywood romances and gender, the film "avoids any of the vulgarities and complications of recent submissions to the romantic comedy genre", while also at times deviating from gender stereotypes. Distinguished from other romantic comedies because its main couple is separated for most of the film, Agreeing that Sleepless in Seattle "has become a journey into nostalgia" in the decades since the film's release, Elle<nowiki/>'s R. Eric Thomas said "there's something sweet and appealing about the relative simplicity—even simplicity in a film with a plot as complex as this one's. And who amongst us isn't rediscovering the telephone during this time, when even small distances seem yawning? Or the simple pleasure of a mailed letter? (Thank you to all the Post Office employees!) After a grueling three years during which the dark underbelly of nostalgia was used to prop up the worst aspects of this country's history and present, it's particularly heartening to be reminded that sometimes, the hallmarks of the past can continue to help us." O'Donnell theorized that although the film might be received as a story about catfishing in modern times, its setting and innocence harkens "back to a time where everything seemed a little bit simpler". TriStar paid approximately $250,000 for the 30-second commercial. On Valentine's Day 1993, chocolate recreations of the Empire State Building were offered to 200 critics. Test screenings hosted in January were well-received and widely covered by several American magazines, including Premiere, Redbook, Allure and Movieline. According to Kathy Tyre of Adweek, TriStar crafted a marketing campaign that branded Sleepless in Seattle as the summer's "romantic alternative". Columbia, TriStar's sister studio, had used the same strategy for When Harry Met Sally... four years prior. The film was widely touted the sleeper hit of the summer. The Los Angeles Times reported that the opening weekend audience was 60% female and 40% 30 years and older. Ephron and Foster attribute the film's success to its release being postponed from March 26 to June 25. and remains the 13th highest-grossing romantic comedy in the United States. According to The Numbers, Sleepless in Seattle is the 21st highest-grossing romantic comedy of all-time.
In July 1993, Rolling Stone journalist Lawrence Frascella predicted that Ephron "is poised to become one of Hollywood's leading women directors" with the success of Sleepless in Seattle. on the December 2 and 5, 2018. Ryan and Foster filmed a new introduction exclusive to the re-issue.
The film continues to be aired regularly on various television stations.
Home media
The film was released on VHS on December 8, 1993, by Columbia TriStar Home Video. It proved very successful in the rental market, and ended up as the most rented movie of 1994 in the United States.
Reception
Critical response
Contemporary
Sleepless in Seattle received positive reviews upon release. Critics particularly praised Hanks and Ryan's performances and chemistry in the lead roles. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers lauded Sleepless in Seattle as "the hippest, frankest and funniest date movie around", praising the leads' performances and Ephron's writing for poking fun at classic romance films "without for a second denying their potency. In Sleepless, she breaks your heart without making you feel like a jerk. As date movies go, that's the ultimate in compliments".
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said the film was "as ephemeral as a talk show, as contrived as the late show, and yet so warm and gentle I smiled the whole way through." He added:
Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a feather-light romantic comedy" and wrote, "It's a stunt, but it's a stunt that works far more effectively than anybody in his right mind has reason to expect. Not since Love Story has there been a movie that so shrewdly and predictably manipulated the emotions for such entertaining effect." Gene Shalit on the Today Show called the film "One of the most beloved films of our time".
In a mixed review, Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly lauded Hanks performance for anchoring but found Sleepless in Seattle itself to be too contrived, writing, "it feels programmed to make you fall in love with it". Criticizing Ephron's reliance on clichés, Gleiberman said the director "mixes old ones from Hollywood with new ones from pop-psych therapy", describing the film as "a '50s tearjerker synthesized by microchip" which lacks the "delicately sexy sparkle" of its predecessors. John Simon of the National Review wrote that the "entire picture is a collection of nauseating quotations and references to An Affair to Remember, both visual and verbal". The Baltimore Sun<nowiki/>'s Mike Littwin dismissed the film as a "chick flick" geared towards women with little pay off for male audiences, apart from "forc[ing] us to re-examine our values". According to the same website, Sleepless in Seattle is their 146th highest-rated romantic comedy of all-time (out of 200), warning readers that they might find the film's relatively low placement surprising considering its popularity. Rotten Tomatoes also ranked Sleepless in Seattle the 53rd best blockbuster of the 1990s decade. On Metacritic, the film has a 72 out of 100 rating, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Caroline Siede of The A.V. Club praised both the lead and supporting cast's performances; the father-son dynamic between Hanks and Malinger's characters during both comedic and heartfelt moments. Virginia Florey of the Midland Daily News said the film "still do[es] a fantastic job of pulling you into their story and their search to find that one person to love". While declaring that Sleepless in Seattle remains the best romantic comedy ever released, Body+Soul contributor Hannah-Rose Yee said despite being "the kind of movie that gives romantic comedies a bad name ... no film has come close to distilling what Sleepless in Seattle does about the ridiculous enterprise that is opening up your heart to someone else". However, she admitted that one's ability to enjoy the film depends "entirely on how on board you can get with a romance in which the two lead characters don't meet until the last five minutes". Common Sense Media wrote that the film is successful in Ephron's hands, despite its "frustrating" structure at times. Upon re-watching the film in 2016, Bustle<nowiki/>'s S. Atkinson perceived Annie as "a woman who is pretty damn morally dubious with regards to her relationship to her fiancée", explaining that "I'd gone from completely doting on the two leads when watching it first time round as a kid to finding them the absolute worst watching again an adult".
The film won four awards at different ceremonies. Ryan won the award for Funniest Actress in a Leading Role at the American Comedy Awards. At the 1994 Young Artist Awards, Malinger won the award for Best Actor Under Ten in a Motion Picture and the film itself won Outstanding Family Motion Picture for Comedy. The film's screenplay was also nominated for Writers Guild and BAFTA awards. Michelle Citrin, Michael Garin and Josh Nelson were announced to be working on the music and lyrics, with Shor discovering Citrin via YouTube. The musical was initially set to premier in 2010, with the premiere date later being moved to 2011 and June 2012. In February 2012, Shor announced that the musical would not premiere until the 2012–13 season and that the show would "undergo a top-to-bottom overhaul" and would have a new creative team. With a new score by composer Ben Toth and lyricist Sam Forman, the musical version premiered at the Pasadena Playhouse in May 2013.
After being postponed for several years, the musical was due to open in London's Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre on March 24, 2020, under the name Sleepless: A Musical Romance starring Jay McGuiness, Kimberley Walsh and Daniel Casey as Sam, Annie and Walter respectively.
But, delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the show back to August 25, 2020, for a run through September 27. The show required the audience to be socially distanced and used several other pandemic-era safety measures.
Legacy
Revered as a classic love story, reviewers deemed Sleepless in Seattle a classic almost immediately upon release, crowning it "the ultimate romantic comedy". S. Atkinson of Bustle declared it the decade's "definitive romantic comedy". Some critics consider it to be one of the best romance films. CinemaBlend's Corey Chichizola said few romantic comedies have remained "as iconic and beloved" as Sleepless in Seattle, attributing its popularity to nostalgia and fans longing for a simpler time. the organization included Sleepless in Seattle on both its best romance and romantic comedy film lists, ranking it 45th and 10th respectively. Television presenter Francine Stock credits Sleepless in Seattle with changing the trajectory of romantic comedies. In 2021, The Hollywood Reporter associate editor Lexy Perez declared that the film remains "a household name in the world of romantic comedies".
Ryan, who has not watched the film since 1993, believes it is unlikely that a film like Sleepless in Seattle would be successful again due to the main characters' lack of scenes together. Foster theorized that the film continues to resonate with audiences due to its sense of magic, specifically the belief that "there's this timeless wish fulfillment that you're going to meet that person somewhere". Crowning Sleepless in Seattle "The Best Rom-Com Ending of All Time", Decider contributor Meghan O'Keefe said the ending ultimately saves the film from being dismissed as simply "another inoffensive romantic comedy", writing that its lack of a kiss or wedding scene ultimately distinguished from similar films. The film is also credited with introducing younger generations to An Affair to Remember, by which Sleepless in Seattle was inspired. For Vanity Fair, journalist Michael Shnayerson said Sleepless in Seattle "crowned [Ryan] as America's screwball darling", shortly after which she began earning at least $15 million per film. While ranking Sleepless in Seattle one of the best performances of Hanks' career, Rolling Stone<nowiki/>'s David Fear credits the film with establishing the actor as a romantic comedy sex symbol. Hanks, Ryan, and Ephron would reunite for one more film, the romantic comedy You've Got Mail, in 1998.|name=Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan collaborations|group=lower-alpha with Kelly O'Sullivan of The Pioneer Woman crowning them both "the unofficial king and queen of rom-coms" and "the most iconic rom-com couple of all time". In 2013, co-executive producer Lynda Obst released a book named after the film, Sleepless in Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business, which explores the decline of romantic comedies during the 2010s. Obst remarked that Sleepless in Seattle<nowiki/>'s nearly $300 million gross is hardly considered a "smash" as of 2014, explaining, "Studios aren't happy unless it makes close to a billion dollars".
Sleepless in Seattle is credited with introducing most Americans to tiramisu, which had been a relatively obscure dessert before 1993. Rob Reiner's character Jay mentions "tiramisu" during a conversation with Sam about dating, which Sam mistakes a euphemism for a sexual act. Jay does not clarify that tiramisu is actually an Italian dessert. According to Josie Delap of The Economist, few Americans had been familiar with the dessert before Sleepless in Seattle, despite America's high Italian population at the time. After the film's release, several viewers resorted to calling the studio directly to find out what tiramisu is, with TriStar executive Susan Levin reporting they were receiving 20–30 phone calls per day about the subject by the first Monday after the film's release. Levin claims several callers were either disappointed or refused to believe them when they explained that tiramisu is simply a dessert, According to cookbook author Dorie Greenspan, Sleepless in Seattle turned tiramisu from simply an Italian dessert into a phenomenon almost overnight, reporting that "Minutes after the movie opened, every morning TV show had some cook making tiramisu", while The Free Press Journal said the film resulted in global fame for the desert.