Sleepwalking: Review By Brokaw

When her boyfriend is sent to jail, Joleen (Charlize Theron) and her daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) are put out on the street. Joleen moves them into her brother's tiny apartment. James (Nick Stahl) is 30 years old, uneducated, and works in construction. Joleen feels like she has completely messed up all of their lives.

One day she leaves, literally. Tara is now James' responsibility, however social services don't see it that way and they relocate the young girl to a facility where she is unhappy and withdrawn. James comes to visit her on her birthday, and they decide to run away together.

With only a few hundred dollars, the only place he can think of going is to his family's farm, the place where he and Joleen spent their childhoods and were mistreated by their father (Dennis Hopper). But James thinks staying at the farm might be good for the young girl. Little does he know that once there, his father would put them both to work and mistreat them as he did when he and his sister were children. When the old man starts beating Tara, James decides enough is enough.

The experience together teaches James the meaning of love. He and Tara form a bond that neither of them has ever had before. When he was originally left with the responsibility of Tara, James had no knowledge about caring for a child. But as they spend time together, he becomes more protective of her and is more her father than her uncle. Until Tara came into his life, he says he was just sleepwalking through the days. She woke him up.

If you enjoy deep dramas, this will most likely appeal to you. Just don't go to see this if you want an uplifting story. It's a powerful story with a first class cast, including Woody Harrelson as James' best friend. Charlize Theron also produced this film. "My initial reaction to the script was that it was powerful, unusual and original," says Theron. "I was moved to tears when I read it. It spoke loudly to something I haven't really seen in film - the idea that we can own our own lives. That we don't have to live in the darkness or the shadow, or be haunted in any way by our legacy or by our family. Just because we have the same blood flowing through our veins, we don't have to make the same mistakes." She says, "I wanted to play Joleen because it's rare that actresses get a chance to play flawed women. We like to keep our women as mothers and nurturers and rarely do we get to see a woman in conflict."