Sleep Don't Weep

True confession: I have been plagued by sleep issues for a good chunk of my life. I had horrible nightmares as a child, and today I deal with insomnia (the type where I wind up waking up at 3 AM and cant fall back asleep). As a result, I could relate on some levels with the protagonist of the new movie, Sleepwalk With Me. I had the opportunity to see it as part of the Cinema Falls series at Icon Lounge this past Sunday.
I had heard an interview with Mike Birbiglia on NPR, discussing the movie. It evolved out of his one man show that ran at the Bleeker Street Theater in NYC back in 2008. Before becoming a movie, it made a pit stop as a New York Times best seller. Ira Glass from NPR’s This American Life was a writer and producer on the film as well.
Loosely based on his own life, Sleepwalk With Me, traces the journey the main character, an aspiring comedian has with a sleep issue. Called rapid eye movement disorder, it causes him to act out his dreams. This can be both equally hilarious. One scene shows him attacking his hamper, thinking it’s a jackal. Another shows him winning a gold medal and then falling off the podium onto the floor. The absolutely terrifying is him jumping out a hotel room window and requiring medical treatment for his injuries.
When Matt’s anxiety level increases, his sleep issues do as well. His fledgling comedy career causes some stress, but not as much as his relationship does. He has been with his college girlfriend, Abby, for eight years and they are no closer to marriage than they were in the beginning of their relationship. He is commitment phobic, she is not. They move in together, and his anxiety/sleep issues intensify. After his sister gets engaged, he realizes that he doesn’t really want to be married and Abby does. To make matters worse, she has dozens of episodes of A Wedding Story and A Baby Story on the DVR.
My husband and I took a very circuitous path to the altar. We were together for the most part for almost a decade before we said I do. I don’t know if we were truly commitment phobic. I know that I was having a lot of fun in my 20’s, and I also had a lot of personal struggles. I would not have been able to take care of my grandmother at the end of her life had I been married. I also would not have been able to travel as I did when I was single, or go to artistic events like the symphony, opera, ballet and theater if I were married. I learned to cook and swing dance and make pottery. I belonged to writing and reading groups. All of that would have been tempered by family responsibilities. I do know that I appreciate the fragility of life more because of the experiences of my 20’s. I lost my dad when I was 26 to colon cancer. His illness and subsequent death made me more appreciative of life, and more willing to be a force of nature to get what I want. My own sleep issues intensified after my dad’s passing, where I was once again plagued by nightmares. As quickly as they started, however, they stopped. It was as if my psyche was processing my grief.
I can relate to Abby’s increasing anxiety over not seeing forward progress in her relationship. When it seems as if all your friends are getting married and having children, it can be hard. There was a year where I was truly always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Deep down, I really wanted the dream wedding, the adoring spouse, the house, the white picket fence and the perfect children. Abby was me at that point in my life, in many regards. Following Matt’s sister’s wedding, Abby realizes that she’s been holding on forever to the promise of her dreams coming true. She goes out for the night, and returns home, drunk. Matt, realizing that he will lose her if he doesn’t commit, makes a half hearted proposal. Abby embarks on planning the dream wedding, Matt cheats on her with a hooters girl, and eventually crashes out the window. Obviously, this will not end well. Abby and Matt break up, and he eventually goes to the sleep study his father has nagged him about throughout the whole film. Told as a first person narrative, as Matt goes about a daily routine in Brooklyn (hipster paradise!), it is a conversation on how he got to his current state of affairs (including sleeping in a sleeping bag, with mittens). It’s a great cinematic trick, because it drew me in. The supporting cast was brilliant-how can you not be funny when Carol Kane is your mother? Lauren Ambrose, from the late great Six Feet Under, shines ethereally as Abby, the long suffering girlfriend. The right combination of beauty and quirkiness, she is completely believable as Matt’s cheerleader, biggest fan and constant supporter. Her morphing into the desperate bride wannabe is equally truthful.
Usually, when I hear about a movie and there is a lot of buildup around it, I am inevitably disappointed when I see it (for example, The Royal Tennenbaums). This was not the case with Sleepwalk with Me. It truly lived up to all the advance publicity. I am so happy that there are others like me in Sioux Falls to support independent cinema, and willing to come out on Sunday evenings to see films. The venue, Icon Lounge, is a converted warehouse with a terrific vibe. I went with my mom, who uses a walker. Icon’s handicapped entrance is on the side of the building, and she got to ride on a lift-which was worth the price of admission! We got there a little late, so our seating choices were limited, but we got a good spot. Since it was dinner time on Sunday night, we had to get some yummy nibbles. I had the ratatouille tarts, which were an amazingly good choice. They were superbly divine. My mother had the chicken tacos, which also were delish. We split an order of guacamole and chips. Their chips tasted more like wontons than tortillas, which was a pleasant surprise. Even better was the guacamole-light, fluffy, with the perfect amount of seasoning.
All in all, it was a great movie and a great night out!