Sleepless (2001) UNRATED CUT - Movie Review
What do you get when you take two legends of cinema and mix them into a dense giallo of colorful character, brutal murders, and intense harp solos?
A movie not half as fun as it sounds and not half as good as any of the parties involved are capable of.
Let’s discuss.
DISCLAIMER - I’m a Dario Argento Fanboy. Ever since Joe Bob Briggs showed me Suspiria when I was a young boy on Monster Vision that late night long ago, I’ve been hooked. Although, unlike most, Suspiria isn’t even in my top three Argento films. I prefer his crime thrillers, his true Giallo pieces. There is greatness in The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, The Cat of Nine Tails, and Tenebrae, albeit with lessening returns. As each decade has passed Argento’s brilliance has waned, but that’s not really it. Since his split from longtime partner and collaborator, Daria Nicolodi, the quality of his films have tanked considerably. Nicolodi is one of the unsung heroes of Italian film and never gets enough credit for how much she contributed to Argento’s success. Look no further than 2001’s Sleepless for an example of that.
Sleepless is a 2001 mystery / thriller film brought to us by writer director Dario Argento and writers Franco Ferrini and Carlo Lucarelli. I know what you’re thinking, Argento and Ferrini collaborating again? How could this go wrong?
Oh, you have no idea who that is.
Do you even Italian bro?
Ahem…
Franco Ferrini îs a legendary Italian screenwriter responsible for classic films such as Once Upon a Time in America and High Frequency. He’s also a longtime collaborator with Argento having written such classics as Phenomena, One Evil Eye (The Black Cat seg.), The Church, and the criminally underrated Do You Like Hitchcock?
Where’s the 4k remaster ARROW VIDEO????
Not all of his efforts with Argento have been great, see The Card Player and The Stendhal Syndrome… plus Phenomena if we’re being honest.
Still, it’s a better chance of getting something better out of Argento if he has a strong willed collaborator. Argento is like David Lynch in that respect. Lynch without Mark Frost, struggles to make a coherent narrative. Argento without Nicolodi needs someone else to keep him in line.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen here as Sleepless is a confusing mess of plot threads and reused gags from previous Argento projects.
The film focuses on both retired detective Moretti (played by the legendary Max Von Sydow) and a former child witness in a serial murder case all grown up, Giacomo (played by Stefano Dionisi) as they confront the horrors of their past as the shadow of the legendary Dwarf killer is once upon cast upon them. Long thought dead by his own hand, eerily similar murders start happening all over Italy. The brutal killer has been roused from the grave and only the brilliant mind of Moretti and the weaponized PTSD of Giacomo can stand in the way of the oncoming carnage. Will the men be able to stop the monster before it’s too late or will they watch everyone they know and love find an early exit to the grave. Find out in Dario Argento’s Sleepless!
Let’s start with the tiny elephant in the room…
The Killer DWARF??!!!
This film has one of the best, pulse pounding openings in any giallo film. It’s a masterpiece of tension. A call girl on the run from a man she suspects to be a prolific serial killer. A train ride from hell where death looms on every corner. A brutal murder with no cut aways. It’s what Giallo is all about. Style with a small amount of substance. The sequence is almost ruined when the name of the killer is reveals as the woman you believe to be the heroine begs to conductor to protect her from the killer dwarf…
It sounds stupid, because it is.
They don’t set this up in any way other than grainy news articles and there’s no implication that the killer was actually a little person. This doesn’t get clarified until half way through the film where they add the information about the original suspected killer who died before he could be questioned. It’s one of many things that feels tacked on.
This movie takes scene for scene sequences from better movies, but ramps up the gore to eleven. There are a couple sequences from Suspira, like the finger severing and the wire strangulation which are redone here with insane practical effects. The gore in this movie was so outrageous and brutal that the film was butchered upon its theatrical release. It would have definitely been a video nasty if it had come out a decade earlier and I’ve got to say that as far as special effects go, they’re top notch.
There’s a murder by French Horn sequence that is forever burnt into my brain.
But there’s also the films lack of basic storytelling and rambling narrative that quickly quashes any love I might have for the film.
I mean, let’s be real—Giallo films aren’t clinics in long form narrative, but by god they’re supposed to tell viciously fun stories.
Nothing about this film is fun.
Max Von Sydow’s character is supposed to be a once great detective plagued by Dementia, afraid to sleep lest he forget the details of the crime, but we NEVER see any of this. He says he has a bad memory, but then a minute later is reciting an obscure nursery rhyme and remembering minuscule details of the crimes. He never lapses, never has a true moment of weakness. If this part had been written better, this film would have been so far ahead of its time. It would have been a groundbreaking, brilliant piece of fiction.
Instead we get this bloated monstrosity that steals it’s style from Suspiria and it’s gore from Tenebrae.
Sydow isn’t the only wasted actor in this film.
They dragged my girl Chiara Caselli into this. You bastards. Chiara deserved better than just playing a piece of meat in this film. She doesn’t get a chance to use any of the charisma and charm that she normally oozes with. She’s just in this film to be a red herring, eye candy, and fodder for a needless, nudity-free sex scene.
Honestly, the entire cast is wasted here. The cast includes such genre standouts as Rossella Falk, Paolo Maria Scalondro, and Massimo Sarchielli and somehow manages to just bury all of them in terrible writing and editing that feels like someone was working under the influence of a lot of meth.
The one actor that actually lent to their own failure in the film is Roberto Zibbetti.
I can’t say why without yelling, from the highest peaks.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
Not that you will ever watch the movie, but if anyone is every going to comment on one of these posts, it’s going to be a sarcastic, Spoiler bro.
Where was I?
Oh yes, Roberto Zibbetti is absolute trash in this film. Whether that was his fault entirely, it’s hard to say due to the levels of ineptitude at all levels of production, but his performance is outstandingly AWFUL.
Seeing as how he is the crux of the film and the revealed Dwarf Killer — that wasn’t actually a dwarf, but a child—who framed the actual dwarf for the killings.
Yeah, you read that right. That’s the fucking twist.
Pardon my Italian.
The problem is, as lame and convoluted a reveal, you can’t understand what Zibetti is saying because all of his lines (in both Italian and English) are unintelligible as he does his best Swiss Joker impression. He’s constantly talking mid-laugh and attempting a devilish giggle. His facial expressions don’t match anything that’s being said and his reactions throughout the film guarantee that you know he’s the killer from about five minutes of screen time. My wife who was half paying attention and isn’t always the quickest to solve mysteries turned to me and asked me, “He’s the killer right?” When I nodded the affirmative she exuberantly asked, “Is this how you feel in ever movie?”
At least Sleepless gave my wife a peak inside my brain. There’s one positive.
I love Argento, but as I come to end of his filmography, having seen everything in the catalog…
It’s getting hard to defend how much he’s tarnished his legacy.
Don’t watch this movie.
It’s not hard to avoid as I had to order a really crappy scan from a wholesaler on Amazon just to see it.
It’s not on any streaming services I’m aware of, which means it’s probably on Tubi if you do want to see it.
