Search - The Innocent Sleep on DVD

2.5 Stars - For Rupert Graves completists only

jammer | Laramie, Wyoming United States | 11/26/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This modest British suspense thriller is on a par with an average TV movie. Set in London and allegedly inspired by a 1982 real-life incident, homeless street-dweller Alan Terry (Rupert Graves) witnesses a middle-of-the-night Italian-style gang-land murder down at the Thames River docks. The political/mob perpetrators become aware of his presence almost immediately, and the chase is on.

This reviewer likes Rupert Graves and would have liked to write a better review, but alas, it's a pretty non-memorable, dully-executed, poorly-paced and unsatisfying film. There's a reason not much is said about it as there's not much to say.

Originally widescreen with a 110-minute run-time as shown at Cannes (hat-tip to Variety for this otherwise obscured tidbit); this DVD release of the 1995 film (some sources say 1996 or even 1997) is bare-bones 4x3 pan-and-scan, truncating otherwise interesting night-time scenery, though remaining picture and sound are fine. The DVD keep case (and Amazon's extracted summary) list this film's running time as 110 minutes. NOT TRUE! THE DVD RUN TIME IS PRECISELY 96 MINUTES PLUS THREE MINUTES FOR CLOSING CREDITS! A PAL 1997 VHS version was listed at 95 minutes, an NTSC 1999 VHS version at 97 minutes.
"