The Perfect Sleep (2009)

Against the backdrop of a noirish dreamscape, a tortured man returns to the city he swore he would never return to, in order to save the woman he has always loved yet can never have.

Director:

Jeremy Alter

Writer:

Anton Pardoe

Stars:

Anton Pardoe, Anthony Dilio, David Beck

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anton Pardoe	...	The Narrator
Anthony Dilio	...	Walter (as Anthony Dee)
David Beck	...	Walter's Goon
Ken Clark	...	Walter's Goon
Ryan Fitzgerald	...	Walter's Goon
Jimmy Hart	...	Walter's Goon
Roselyn Sanchez	...	Porphyria
Denyse Tontz	...	Young Porphyria
Scout Alter	...	Young Narrator
Frank Bruynbroek	...	Young Nikolai
Scarlett Chorvat	...	Tatiana
Daniel Goddard	...	Sergei
Dmitri S. Boudrine	...	Kolya (as Dimitri Boudrine)
Stefan Pardoe	...	Ganya
Said Bakouch	...	The Maharajah

Storyline

Against the backdrop of a noirish dreamscape, a tortured man returns to the city he swore he would never return to, in order to save the woman he has always loved yet can never have.

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Plot Keywords:

drug addiction | murder | mexican standoff | drug addicted doctor | shotgun | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, some language and brief drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 March 2009 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Unified Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min 99 min (European Film Market)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

At about ten minutes and eighteen seconds into the film, The Narrator is awoken by a car horn outside the "warehouse". He gets up, on his knees, using the cane for support. Then the camera switches to a shot of Walter laying on the ground, his cane visible and also lying on the ground. In the next shot, Walter's cane is in The Narrator's hand again.

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Quotes

The Narrator: And there he is, the Rajah's prize possession, Captain Keller. He's killed more people than you've met. A good man to avoid.

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Soundtracks

"The Haunted Theater"
Written and Performed by Greg Kuehn
Courtesy of Peligro Music

User Reviews

An endangered species

The Perfect Sleep, while not a brilliant film does represent the ever-shrinking genre of watchable neo-noir. While it's certainly flawed, it lacks much of the intentional overly complex that robs many similar movies of their enjoyability (why watch a movie that's needlessly hard to follow?). Then again, it's not exactly a movie you can switch your brain off for.

Normally someone would put some sort of plot synopsis here, but if you've ever seen any type of noir film you know such an endeavor is pointless. They're usually a bit hard to follow and that can be part of their intrigue. Most noir-ish films rely heavily on the dialog (usually in ways that most people would never use in regular conversation), characters of moral ambiguity, and comparably lavish sets. The Perfect Sleep is no different, with the possible exception of most action sequences involving martial arts. Not sure I'd seen that before.

All in all the film comes out looking a lot like a seriously less flashy and more intelligent version of Sin City or The Spirit (the latter being complete garbage). That's actually a big plus for me as a fan of (some) noir films. While I enjoyed Sin City I always felt like it was just trying to do too much visually that took away from an arguably cool story, so that actually works well for me. Aside from the somewhat vague plot I'd say this would be at least enjoyable for fans of the genre. You don't see too many of these films these days and you see ever fewer done well.