Sleepless occupies a space of complete mediocrity. It’s never terrible but it’s also never really good. It’s occasionally entertaining but never entertaining enough. It seems content with being average, which seems fitting for a film that is being dumped in January but there is enough talent here to give us a solid B- movie that may not boost a huge budget but uses what it has with ingenuity and style. It has sparks of being that kind of film, which makes it a decent 95-minute diversion but once it’s all over you find yourself forgetting most of it by the time the credits roll.
The film, which is a remake of the 2011 French film Sleepless Night, starts in the middle of a car chase, with Las Vegas police detective Vincent Downs (Jamie Foxx) and his partner Sean Cass (rapper T.I.) stealing a massive shipment of cocaine from drug dealers working for local crime boss Rob Novak (Scoot McNairy), who supplies a local hotel and casino owner named Stanley Rubino (Dermot Mulroney) with party favors for his high-rolling guests. The bad guys kidnap Vincent’s son Thomas (Octavius J. Johnson) to get the drugs back.
There’s a parallel plot involving Vincent’s colleague, Detective Jennifer Bryant (Michelle Monaghan), who was recently beaten up during a drug bust gone wrong. There are suggestions that the botched drug raid and Vincent’s current situation are connected, and as Jennifer and her partner Doug Dennison (David Harbour) investigate the situation at the hotel, Sleepless turns into a bit of a conspiratorial thriller, with the characters piecing together connections that lead them to realize their adversaries don’t have the motives and goals they thought they did.
When the film takes a moment to slow down and remind the audience that Vincent is in deep anguish over his missing son, the movie works a bit better than most generic action thrillers. This sort of high-level emotion is a bit of a throwback to full blown action melodramas. The problem is that the film delves into plot points that don’t go anywhere too exciting and it draws you away from the meat of the story. Vincent is a fairly interesting character and his domestic life hints at why he’s so immersed in his task at hand. His fractured relationship with his ex-wife Dena (Gabrielle Union) and the complicated relationship with his son are interesting character points worth exploring but the film rather play things by the numbers and, at times, gets a bit silly in the process.
Vincent suffers a stab wound during the film’s opening action sequence and in between fistfights, Vincent has to pause to redress the wound on his side. The situation provides Sleepless with some of its moments of humor: the hero is so immersed in the task of saving his son and recovering the stolen drugs without his superior officers finding out that his own adrenaline serves as an anesthetic making him forget the pain until the script realizes the audience would probably wonder why this guy isn’t in pain or agony. There is humor to be had here for sure but as I watched, I viewed it as completely unintentional which made the scenario all the more absurd.
The plot involving Jennifer Bryant and the connection to Vincent’s story doesn’t break new ground on plots twists but some of the revelations serve the film well and give it a nice burst of energy when necessary. There aren’t nearly enough of these moments but considering how by the numbers the movie can be, I found myself accepting most of the twists and turns presented here.
The film has an issue finding the right tone and balance. The situation appears grim but the film never goes grim enough to really work on that level. It also wants to be a Jason Bourne-style action movie but the action is merely a series of quick cuts that kinetic moments that are all too familiar. If the action was executed in a unique way it could’ve distracted from the mediocrity of the film but at times it enhances it. Director Baran bo Odar sets up these sequences well enough and the film hints at a significant visual style but the end result gives you a feeling of been there, done that.
Jamie Foxx is a capable action star and the scenes where he’s intensely trying to find his son do register but I feel like Foxx is better than this kind of role. This is the kind of performance Denzel Washington would’ve killed about ten years ago so it feels like Foxx is backtracking a bit. I had to look at his filmography to see when he wowed me last and I had to go all the way back to 2012 with Django Unchained. He needs a movie like that again because he’s better than the material here, even though he handles it well enough. The supporting characters do a decent job playing their stock characters but no one breaks any new ground here. I’m always surprised when a film like this attracts a decent amount of talent and I would say I would love to see some of these actors in a better project together.
Sleepless is competent but uninspired. It serves its purpose and nothing more. If it had more focus and a desire to evolve beyond its generic nature, it could’ve been a much better action experience but instead, it’s merely matinee adequate and that’s if it’s the only film available to kill time before you go off to do something better.
Reel Talk gives Sleepless 2 Reels
