Sleepwalking

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

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.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Stanford's script is painfully obvious, right down to the line of dialogue spelling out the title's significance.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Portentous and dull, the film features one of the worst over-the-top performances by Dennis Hopper, who plays an abusive father.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Well-intentioned to a fault, Sleepwalking blurs the line between dramatizing free-floating misery and spreading it.

Film Threat Zack Haddad

It’s a shame that this film’s star-studded cast wasn’t able to save the mediocre storyline.

Variety Ronnie Scheib

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.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

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.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The whole picture plays like a pop-up book in a welfare agency.

Time Richard Schickel

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.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

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.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

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.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The movie seems terrified of true psychological complexity or perversity. It's less a family tragedy than a lousy country dirge.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A feeling of hopelessness pervades Sleepwalking.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

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).

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A bummer.

The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber

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.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

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.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

There's loads of suffering in Sleepwalking, piled on until the picture almost becomes an unintentional comedy.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Despite honorable work from Theron, Robb and Stahl, Sleepwalking makes good on its title in a not-so-good way.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Relentlessly depressing.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

An inert, sloppily written melodrama as grim and featureless as its frozen Midwestern setting.

Village Voice Michelle Orange

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

A slow-moving family drama guaranteed to induce a nap if not somnambulism.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A soporific dud, which should have been tossed out of Sundance.