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Sleepwalking
Metascore
40 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 24
  3. Negative: 6 out of 24
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  1. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    75
    Despite its deficiencies, and the inadequate screen time allotted to Theron (who's quite good), Sleepwalking has a core of feeling. It's about a do-gooder who, lacking all skills for it, does good anyway. His emotional odyssey has real poignancy.
  2. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    63
    Stanford's script is painfully obvious, right down to the line of dialogue spelling out the title's significance.
  3. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    50
    But the regularly overlooked Stahl burrows honestly into this unpleasant place, adding another worthy portrait to his indie gallery of interesting losers. He's still an actor worth keeping your eyes on. Assuming you can keep them open.
  4. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    50
    A bummer.
  5. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    Portentous and dull, the film features one of the worst over-the-top performances by Dennis Hopper, who plays an abusive father.
  6. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    The movie seems terrified of true psychological complexity or perversity. It's less a family tragedy than a lousy country dirge.
  7. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    A feeling of hopelessness pervades Sleepwalking.
  8. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    50
    The whole picture plays like a pop-up book in a welfare agency.
  9. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Zack Haddad
    50
    It's a shame that this film's star-studded cast wasn't able to save the mediocre storyline.
  10. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Josh Rosenblatt
    50
    Unfortunately, Sleepwalking isn't content being a character study of damaged adult siblings (if it were, it would have made a nice companion piece to Kenneth Lonergan's "You Can Count on Me," which is a far less sobering, but far more effective, movie).
  11. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Crust
    50
    Terrific performances and a bleak, riveting look at life on the economic fringes eventually gives way to an overly familiar tale of abuse, denial and catharsis that feels like warmed over Sam Shepard minus the poetry.
  12. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    50
    It's because of AnnaSophia Robb's performance...I don't think you'll see a more fascinating and nuanced performance at the movies this year.
  13. Variety
    Reviewed by: Ronnie Scheib
    50
    The overly simplistic script by Zac Stanford ("The Chumscrubber") hits nothing but high notes, making the whole dramatically less than the sum of its parts.
  14. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    50
    The movie seems unusually honest in portraying the no-option existence of the working poor, but the story slips into melodrama in the last reel.
  15. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    50
    Well-intentioned to a fault, Sleepwalking blurs the line between dramatizing free-floating misery and spreading it.
  16. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Stephen Farber
    40
    Even if the movie takes you to some dark places you would rather not visit, at least you will remember the actors who navigate the tortured journey.
  17. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    40
    There's loads of suffering in Sleepwalking, piled on until the picture almost becomes an unintentional comedy.
  18. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    40
    As Mr. Maher, in his feature directing debut, brings in surreal touches and puts on literary airs, the film's grip loosens, and its vernacular turns increasingly wooden.
  19. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    38
    Despite honorable work from Theron, Robb and Stahl, Sleepwalking makes good on its title in a not-so-good way.
  20. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    38
    Relentlessly depressing.
  21. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michelle Orange
    30
    Theron and Woody Harrelson provide vitality against the film's heavy load, but they aren't around long enough to keep it from collapsing under its own portentous weight.
  22. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    30
    An inert, sloppily written melodrama as grim and featureless as its frozen Midwestern setting.
  23. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    25
    A slow-moving family drama guaranteed to induce a nap if not somnambulism.
  24. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    0
    A soporific dud, which should have been tossed out of Sundance.
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