Sleepless in Seattle (Movie Review Sample)

Essay
English
Number of Pages: 2
Sleepless in Seattle: Theme Analysis
Introduction
Sleepless in Seattle is one of the classical romantic movies of all times released in 1993.The movie is about two main characters, Sam and Annie, who are both dissatisfied with their loveless lives. Sam’s wife has just died leaving him with their son called Jonah; while Annie is engaged to a man who seems to be allergic to almost everything he comes across. Jonah persuades his father to talk on a radio show to find another wife since he was suffering and it so happens that Annie is tuned to that station. She decides to write Sam a letter telling him to meet her at Empire State Building ("Sleepless in Seattle”, 1993).
The story then takes a twisted turn. Sam begins dating a woman who Jonah hates. Jonah then replies the letter to Annie agreeing to meet her. At the airport, Sam coincidentally meets Annie and is attracted to her though he has no idea who she is. Annie follows him only to see him with his sister and she thinks of her as the girlfriend. She returns home to fix her relationship. Jonah, without his father’s permission, flies to New York to find Annie. Sam later finds out and flies too to New York to find Jonah and he meets with Annie ("Seattle”, 1993).
The theme of the film is true love and whether true love can happen again. Sam’s wife was the love of his life and now that she is dead, we see a blooming love thriving with Annie. The whole film tries to build up that love even when they have not met physically right from the beginning to the end of the movie. The movie takes a different approach since most movies show two people meeting and then strive to make the love successful, but in this case, the meeting comes right at the end of the film.
There are many cinematic techniques and design elements like editing, music and visuals that have been used in the film to drive the theme home to the audience. When Sam sees Annie when she comes to find him, they both do not know the other in a personal way. Yet, they seem to know something about the other; Sam remembers seeing her at the airport and Annie had some research done on him. Here, a shot-reverse shot is seen because both of these characters appear in the same shot when they are looking at one another (Anne, 2009).
The two characters are put in parallel visual spacing in the film. It is seen when Sam, talking on the radio in his house is parallel to Annie listening to him at home. Both are seen coming out of a door at the same time but in different locations. The eye lines of the two characters seem to match and so does the mood of each scene that they are linked with. They seem to have the same emotions though they are far from each other.
Sound is also another way that helps the theme to be accomplished by setting the romance or intimacy of the two characters. The romantic music played in the film sets the mood for the two. They first met through sound or wo...