The Sleepwalker Killing

The story is supposedly based on a real life incident and is about a normally well mannered, quiet family man who confesses to murdering his mother-in-law, but claims not to remember anything about doing it. He's subsequently charged and stands trial for the murder and as the story unfolds, sleepwalking is eventually considered by the defense attorney as a real possibility behind the act.

I'm not going to go into judging acting abilities or how good or bad the director did in making this film, only to say that I found it quite presentable. Just for the record, any NCIS fans will get to see a young Sean Murray (Special Agent Timothy McGee) as one of the main players in this movie.

My main interest was how sleep-walking was analyzed and how, in this modern age of technology and so called understanding, we still have a lot to learn. Could be a good movie for any psychology or behavioral students and for those of us just looking to pass the time, I think it's worth the watch.

this is another movie i taped from a German channel (vox) and i don't grasp what it is said… I understand that Hilary's husband kills her mother while sleeping: her family is upset because Hilary trusts him however. The movie is rather dull except for Hilary playing a young mother and putting her very original charm into a low profile, plain clothes.

Like only a true story can be this is a fascinating movie about the sleepwalking defense to murder. The facts are so strange that it really makes the viewer think about what could have happened. Based on a true story in Canada.

Hilary Swank before she became a big star plays the wife of the man who supposedly slept walked his way to his in laws house and killed his Mother in law. Confusing the situation is he was in debt from gambling.

Worth a watch.

Sleepwalking is an interesting concept to explore in a movie. I've never heard of sleepwalking used as a defense before. The movie gives you a good overview of what a sleepwalker goes through. Hilary Swank is good supported by the excellent Sam Anderson as her father. Sean Murray as her brother and Marisa Coughlan as her sister were both good casting. Both are believable as the grieving children & both are adorable young stars. The attorneys, Natalia Nagulich & Lisa Darr, did a superior job at defending their beliefs going at it in the classic legal style. Charles Esten as the accused killer leaves you wondering about what did really happen. His acting was excellent. Good cast and interesting to watch.

It's difficult to say with definitive certainty what the punishment should be for a person who commits a murder and legitimately does not recall it. Is it fair to let him loose, even with the looming thought that they do in fact recall what they did? Or is it fair to lock him up on murder charges when there is the idea that they do not remember what they did? This is the ethical dilemma in John Cosgrove's The Sleepwalker Killing, a Lifetime mystery that bases its plot off a real-life incident. But this incident isn't the only sleepwalking-murder in the world. Just looking up "sleepwalking murders" on the internet generates several hundred links of news articles, videos, and reports detailing dozens of incidents. One could reasonably infer that some of the cases are inauthentic, but to assume that all of them feature a suspect who doesn't want to make up a plausible alibi is simply foolish and impractical.

This particular story concerns Mark Schall (Jeffrey Nordling), who murders his mother-in-law and significantly injures his father-in-law in the middle of the night after making the short drive over there - all of which he did when he claims he was sleeping. He suddenly begins to recall things more clearly after the incident, rushing to a police station covered in blood, coldly saying, "I think I killed someone." He claims to only remember the most vague images from the night of the murders, which leads a special psychiatrist to investigate if he was sleepwalking during the event. In the mix of this, he finds cautious support from his wife Lauren (Hillary Swank) and no support from his mother-in-law's side of the family, who views him as a heartless murderer. Close family knows that he was nothing of the sort and a loving, compassionate man towards his mother-in-law and her family. But many of them find the case pretty inexcusable (be honest, wouldn't you?). The additional information on Mark isn't so pretty, as well, detailing a history of gambling debts, family/marital lies, and mixed signals, all of which don't bear much for his defense.

At the very least, this sets up an interesting, serviceable mystery, even if the film is entirely plagued by the shortcomings of hammy acting and the presence of a very ponderous narrative. The Sleepwalker Killing works on the level that it holds your attention because you're intrigued out of pure curiosity's sake, but flounders in the sense of giving you what a film should in a complete package.

Starring: Hillary Swank and Jeffrey Nordling. Directed by: John Cosgrove.