Everyone knew Barry Levinson back in the day like how Rob Reiner was as a great figure in the film industry, then took a complete downfall in his career with films like Envy and Rock the Kasbah (a film I actually didn’t mind BTW). Before that time frame, he did such memorable, heart wrenching classics such as Good Morning, Vietnam, The Natural, Diner, and Rain Man. That “time frame” ended unfortunately with the ensemble-driven picture, Sleepers, released in 1996.
It basically tells the story of a group of four children whom decided, “Hey, let’s mess around downtown New York and see what happens.” This leads to a massive accidental injury from the Hot Dog vendor and the group therefore gets in massive appitemy. The major consequence of the four children is that they each get sentenced through many months at the Wilkinson Home for Boys. At that place, they encounter a possible brutal abuser by the name of Sean Nokes (Kevin Bacon), who is probably a person you would not face against towards. The film develops from a coming-of-age story to a reunion story of how the resolving came about (You know, the people who abused the children at the home) for these grown-up human beings.
The very first time I heard from this movie in general was from YouTube film critic, Chris Stuckmann, whom I saw the Blu-ray in his collection and I was like, “I have heard of the title, I know it has a mid-1970’s soundtrack and I know it is directed by Barry Levinson, but I have actually never seen the movie.” There are still A LOT of films in my head I had that reaction towards, but I will give no examples since there are many to think.
Out of all of the Barry Levinson films I have watched, this is for sure his most hard-to-watch and one of them that mostly focuses on story than character. I feel like this is a film that people should definitely witness for sure because most film buffs think Schindler’s List (obviously) is the most hard-to-watch movie out there. Almost everything I think about this film is just about as gripping and cold as Schindler’s List despite that film not being easily as close as that film would be.
What Levinson does such a fantastic job in his ’80s and ’90s movies is that he develops such brilliant character and depth in this story, where Levinson incorporates sympathy for that character. A thing that made Rain Man arguably the best film of 1988 (aside from Die Hard) is that he grabbed the viewer in the heart for Dustin Hoffman’s autistic character because of what cause he is going through. It develops such a perfect bond for both Hoffman and Cruise at the same time.
Regardless of being an extremely effective film though, Levinson still is consistent with the bonding of each character. This would mean that the all-star ensemble are a showcase to watch here. Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, Billy Crudup and Dustin Hoffman all make worthwhile chemistry as well as the children that played them back when they were young. However, the actor that truly stands out would none other than be Kevin Bacon as the child abuser, Sean Nokes. Once again, this is a human being that you do not want to connect with or be friends with. He completely describes the definition of despicable because you really want to love to hate this character due to the certain actions he does. I can say that this is something that the Academy missed BIG time.
Other than the second half being superb, but not as heart-wrenching as the first half, Sleepers is definitely something you should check out and witness. I would highly recommend this film if you want a heavily story-driven ensemble film that succeeds like Levinson’s Rain Man. To me, this is probably one of my 3 favorite films from Barry Levinson since he definitely meets his true expectations as director.
Grade: 9/10
