While You Were Sleeping (1995)

While You Were Sleeping (1995), directed by Jon Turteltaub.

This Christmas and New Year romantic comedy employs the traditional screwball formulae of little lies that get out of hand, mistaken identities, and pretending that becomes real with time.

Sandra Bullock is so scruffy-cute they ought to bottle her and sell it. Just adorable, the perfect low-maintenance girlfriend. Later the actress wanted a harder image but she had definite girly appeal during this phase.

According to the wikipedia both Demi Moore and Julia Roberts passed on the role.

(As an aside: it's been years since I was on the Chicago el-trains, but "Lucy Eleanor Moderatz" might be the only white woman working as a token taker in the entire CTA).

It's not just about love, but also loneliness and finding new family, all very sweet and heart warming, a few notches above the Hallmark Christmas films which do the same sort of plot. In fact, Hallmark's A Very Merry Mix-Up (2013) with Alicia Witt reminds me of this one.

(Don't judge me. You can't open the book of my life and start reading from the middle).

The loving family is a bit too colorful and their quips seem dropped in by a gag writer.

More of the cast:

The film poster is a huge plot spoiler:

http://watershade.net/public/while-you-were-sleeping-2.jpg

...but maybe seasoned rom-com audiences always knew how it would end.

Score by Randy Edelman.

My thumbnails are from an all-region Blu-ray import. No sign of escape from the Disney/Buena Vista vault in North America.

http://watershade.net/public/while-you-were-sleeping.jpg