The Sleeping Dictionary
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Movie Reviews of The Sleeping Dictionary
Movie Review: Truly romantic!
Summary: 5 Stars
I netflixed this movie before I bought it because of the negative Amazon reviews and it is worth the buy. A truly romantic movie...you won't be disappointed.Movie Review: A beautiful direct to DVD period movie with Jessica Alba
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Sleeping Dictionary" was a direct to video film, which is rather surprisingly given both its cast and its look, as borne out by the film winning four DVD Exclusive Awards in 2003 for Best Actress Jessica Alba, Best Cinematography by Martin Fuhrer, Best Supporting Actor Bob Hoskins, and Best Supporting Actress Brenda Blethyn. This really is too good of a film to be a DVD Premier Movie, but hopefully word will get around, even if it is to check out Jessica Alba wearing colorful tribal outfits.The setting is Sarawak, Malaysia in 1937, when young John Truscott (Hugh Dancy), fresh out of university (where he tended to read books), has come to serve his Majesty's government as an official of the Empire. The regional governor is Henry Bullard (Hoskins), who oversees the Iban, a tribe of friendly headhunters. John, like his father, has a dream of educating the Iban children, but that requires him to learn the local language and customs. The governor arranges for John to have a "sleeping dictionary," a local girl who will both teach the young Englishmen to speak the language and tutor him in the ways of love.
The girl selected for John is Selima (Alba), who is half Iban and have British. John initially resists the second part of his education, but in the end falls in love with this beautiful and sensual woman, which violates the taboos of both cultures. Meanwhile, the governor wants his daughter, Cecil (Emily Mortimer) to marry John, and the situation conspires to give our young hero no choice but to stick to the elitist traditions of his own people. Cecil and her mother (Blethyn) know about the sleeping dictionaries, but it turns out that neither they nor John know everything about Selima and the solution to John's problems that is arranged at the end of the film's first act becomes unraveled in the second.
This is a beautiful film from writer-director Guy Jenkin, full of stunning visuals of the lush jungle of Sarawak and the native peoples. Simon Boswell's musical score perfectly compliments the visual splendor. The only real weakness on that side of the camera is the editing, where key moments are shoved aside to move on to the next scene too quickly a couple of times. But the strength of "The Sleeping Dictionary" is in front of the camera, not only in terms of the gorgeous images but the solid performances from the entire cast. Even those who are disappointed that there is a body double for Alba in the nude scenes or that her accent is problematic at times are not going to be disappointed they checked out this 2002 film.
Unfortunately New Line Cinema skimped on the extras for this DVD. All we get is are trailers, mostly for other films, and no insights into whether the sleeping dictionary is a real tradition or part of Jenkins' imagination. One of the joys of a well made period piece is a look at the fun the cast and crew had with getting it right on screen.
Movie Review: A magnificent surprise "The Sleeping Dictionary" was for me, indeed a wonderful romance
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a film that had a good idea, and good execution of what the idea turned into. It is a shame the film never appeared in theaters as the visuals of Sarawak would have been great on the large screen and the audio and music are well done and would have benefited from a theatrical environment. Unfortunately, a little bit more planning would have helped. At 109 minutes, this film won't bore you, but it could have been rightfully intriguing with 20-30 minutes of good plot added. The film is carried on the sound film-making and charm of it's actors. In particular, Alba is really good. She plays the part with the seriousness it was intended, and never lets her intentionally accented English fall into 'stupid foreigner' stereotype, a tough job for many young actors and actresses who have attempted the same. Her partner, Hugh Dancy, is good enough. He channels a little bit like a scrawny Heath Ledger, but never quite gets rugged enough.
The other joy of the cast is the ever-underrated Bob Hoskins. By coincidence, I saw 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' a couple of weeks ago before watching 'Sleeping Dictionary,' and am never let down by his appearances in films. He plays a character who isn't written subtly enough; still, he acts it. The endless looks of "Damn bloody fool. Good for him, the w***er" scattered through the film isn't enough for a man of his caliber, but we'll take what we can get. Their performances are weaved together well by Writer/Director Guy Jenkin, who is making his big screen debut as a director, though his writing career goes back to the late '70's without much acclaim. Directing-wise, he knows what he is doing. The camera work is graceful and beautiful, and he compliments the fantastic elements of the story well. As a writer, well, there are things left to be desired.
Most of all, this film seems too short. The story is predictable, but it never drags. The love scenes are contrived, as is the underdeveloped climax, but that's not where the film is weak. The characters are cleverly set up to be mirrors, and the overlapping triangles are so complex they rival those brainteasers that ask 'how many triangles are in this picture?' The problem is, the most important one is never realized, because of the lack of development between Dancy and his best friend within the tribe. Without much difficulty, and a little more time, that relationship alone would have lifted this film from not quite enough to a good, if not better, movie.
As a result, you're left with a film that doesn't challenge anything because it just challenges the same old things. But it is romantic, and has much more spark than many other movies you may see of this type. This film is worth seeing.
Movie Review: Visually entertaining
Summary: 4 Stars
In the not-so-distant past, young British men, fresh out of university, were sent to outposts of the Empire to practice their administrative skills on one of the many races subjugated by the British at the time. This film follows young John Truscott (Hugh Dancy) as he arrives in Sarawak (now part of Malaysia) in 1936 for his stint - he is idealistic, and full of ideas for educating and civilising the primitives. He is startled to be met by a tattooed native who speaks perfect English, and who introduces himself as Belansei (Eugene Salleh). Belansei takes him upriver, where he meets Henry Bullard (Bob Hoskins), who is governor of the district. Truscott is assigned a hut, a cook (who cooks well, but drinks heavily), and, to his surprise, a "sleeping dictionary". A sleeping dictionary, he is informed, is a young woman who will sleep with him and teach him the local language. Truscott is shocked, and upset, although he feels very attracted to Selima (Jessica Alba). He refuses to sleep with her, but offers to learn the language from her. Bullard is angry, because he is rocking the boat and refusing to follow tradition, even though this is the way things have been done for centuries.
Truscott yields to propinquity, however, and falls in love with Selima, and she with him. This love is deepened when they experience danger together. He wants to marry her, but this is forbidden by British traditions, and all manner of retribution will fall upon them should they persist. Instead, Bullard's wife, the manipulative Aggie (Brenda Blethyn), pushes him to marry her daughter Cecilia (Emily Mortimer, who plays this role in unflattering make-up so she looks plain). This doesn't make the other young British administrator, Neville Shipperly (played with superb chinless sleaze by Noah Taylor) at all happy, for he had designs upon Cecilia for himself.
Jessica Alba's acting skills are fairly limited (not that she's required to do much here), and easily surpassed by Hugh Dancy, who does a superb job of English prig on arrival, gradually learning that the Iban, and others, are people too.
This film was shot in Malaysia, and the river and jungle scenery is really quite lovely.
The love story is nicely told, set among the ugliness of British colonialism.
Movie Review: The Sleeping Dictionary
Summary: 4 Stars
Funny this 2003 film was not widely released in movie theaters. I think it would have done well. I realize though that Jessica Alba had not appeared in a major movie yet at that time, maybe that's what had caused the reservations to not show it widely in theaters.
The movie is set in Sarawak, Malaysia in 1930. A young British officer arrives with high ambitions to continue the work that his father (killed in the war) had started, namely to bring education to the native Iban tribe. He is paired with a so-called sleeping dictionary, in his case a bi-lingual native (Alba) with the intent to fast-teach him the local language using her bedroom skills.
I found all the acting to be pretty decent, including Alba's. She did go back and forth between having an accent and not having one, and also between being an Iban and being Alba. I admit though that being male it's probably impossible to not like her however bad her acting would be :-) . Hugh Dancy was believable in transforming from a stiff British college grad to a likeable young man. Bob Hoskin (self-proclaimed "god" in the colony) did a good job representing the values of the motherland while still showing heart and overall being fair and likeable.
The set of course offers breathtaking views of the jungle, and the depiction of the natives is believable. I was glad for the happy ending (I am a sucker for feel-good movies I admit), although how well both Bob's character and his 100% british daughter, now the wife of the young officer, take his departure (after all, they just learned that his wife is pregnant), is of course indeed very nice and shows their maturity as humans, but altogether not fully believable. This would be too good to be true in real life.
This is a movie that shows some of the conflicts inevitable when such different cultures as the stiff British society of 70 years ago and an unencumbered live-in-the-day people like friendly Malaysian head-hunters of those days interfere with each other. It does not go really deep though in explaining the conflicts and will not leave you all stirred up.