Sleeplessin Seattle

Sleepless in Seattle I found to be a very interesting example of narrative style in film. For anyone who has not seen the film it is about a man, Sam, who's wife has died, and a woman, Annie, who at the beginning of the movie is engaged to a man named, Walter. The man's son, Jonah, calls up a radio talk show and talks to the woman about his father being depressed from his lost wife. The woman, along with many others among the greater American continent, hears the talk show. She over time decides to get in contact with Sam, despite her relationship with Walter, and ends up writing him a letter. Jonah finds the letter and decides to go along with the letters plan and go meet Annie in new york. Sam tells Jonah that they cannot go. But Jonah will not take no for an answer and goes alone. Sam then has to new york to find his son and ends up meeting Annie with whom he falls in love with almost immediately.

The narrative structure of this film I found to be very interesting because of the fact that it is really two stories in one. Sam and Jonah have their own story and Annie has hers. In truth the two stories interact very few times in the movie. They only influence each other four times, when Annie first hears the talk show, when she writes her letter, when she goes to visit Seattle, and finally when they meet in New York. Other then that the stories function independently as does the plot development which for a good half the movie is only indirectly influenced by the others plot. However, despite all of this I would still argue that this narrative is a good example of the kind of narrative space talked about by Heath and supported by Cooper. It follows a very linear plot development culminating in a happy ending as only Hollywood can supply.

One thing that I found very interesting in this movie was the difference between the two main characters. Most movies follow the stereotype that the man is the one who chases the woman. In this movie Sam does literally nothing to get together with Annie. He reads her letter but is not impressed and has no intention of meeting her. He in fact would never have gone to new york were it not for his son. He actually spends a very large part of the movie dating another woman with no intention of meeting Annie at all. Annie on the other hand is with her fiance but spends a rather large part of her time looking for and trying to get with Sam. She is the one who does things like finding out where he lives and tracking him down in the middle of Seattle. Another interesting thing is the looseness of relationships in the movie. The audience spends the movie rooting for Annie to get together with Sam despite the fact that they are both in other relationships. Annie has very little trouble at the end of the movie leaving Walter, who it turns out is actually an amazingly nice guy. At the end Sam also finds it very easy to leave his girlfriend of the past few months for Annie. This is an especially interesting fact when we consider his loyalty of almost two years to his dead wife.
Sleepless in Seattle is an interesting movie, and a good example of Narrative, while still having an intriguing narrative structure. However, It does leave me questioning the plot as to why Walter was made to be such a nice guy and why Annie was able to leave him so easily.