Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

How sad is this?

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Bill Maher's 'Sleepwalking' starts off slow and I initially got the impression that this would be another one of those films that isn't really going anywhere. I was more put off by the Tara character who appeared to be just another caricature bitchy preteen, but once Maher is done introducing his character and the first twist takes place (with Jolene leaving), it becomes apparent what a strong character driven piece 'Sleepwalking' as the characters are further fleshed out and Tara isn't portrayed as a one-dimensional hormonal adolescent that one has witnessed in numerous other Hollywood flick but a more recognizable teen who's struggling with her dysfunctional and broken family. All the characters, including the minor ones are portrayed as humans.Zac Stanford's writing is solid. The story is subtly layered and the dialogues are intriguing. I especially remember the last line, a message James leaves for his sister. The execution is very modest. There are no over-the top effects or melodramatic music. The subtle score is effectively used.AnnaSophia Robb is brilliant and Nick Stahl and Charlize Theron are great. Dennis Hopper is excellent as the abusive father who was estranged from his children. Even the supporting actors who have very small roles, like Mathew St. Patrick, Woody Harrelson and Deborra-Lee Furness, make their character more than noticeable.Maher's underrated film is sincere, sad and involving. There's a quiet rhythmic flow to it once one is past the first fifteen minutes. In a way the ending does leave one wanting more because the viewer is drawn to the character's world.

If you peer honestly at this film, it depicts familial dysfunction, and the havoc it engenders in children; they are the innocent creatures that are damaged irrevocably. They say all you need is one person while you are raised who attunes to you lovingly and with empathy; thats all it takes. When you are abused at an early age, you will lack individuation and psychosocial integration. Perchance if you have children, whether you want to or not, you will pass this information on, that is stored in every cell of your body. Braking the generational abusive cycle requires more than knowledge it requires healing. Nick Stahl is a great actor, who gets better with age, using little to say so much. The child actor is decent too.

Charlize Theron produced this movie and takes the key role as the whacked out mother. While it is a key role, it still must be regarded as a supporting role. When the movie begins she and her 12 year old daughter are forced to move out of her boyfriend's place when he is arrested for dope and growing it. Their only short-term hope is to crash at her brother's spartan place, with no real plan. The daughter just wants to live the way a normal 12-year-old school girl lives but with mom that seems pretty well impossible.Nick Stahl is good as the brother, James. AnnaSophia Robb is superb as the daughter, Tara. And of course Charlize Theron is the mom, Joleen.When mom goes out one evening and never returns, things change even more. Then when James, a rather "dull" person, loses his menial job, and already 60 days behind on his rent, they have to look for even more drastic solutions. They end up taking a road trip, and that trip takes them back to the farm where his dad still lives and works the farm.Joleen had often said that she would NEVER go back to that place and we soon find out why. Dennis Hopper as Mr. Reedy, "Dad", is about the most severe person you could find. He won't allow them any rest, or vacation, he gets both of them up at the crack of dawn and requires them to work all day. Tara quickly figures out why her mom hates that place and had severed ties with grandpa. The movie examines their plight and the theme, per the title, is for the main players to see if they can quit sleepwalking through life and get on a better, happier track. By the end it appears that they will.SPOILERS: James is able to tolerate his severe dad, at least at first, because he had no choice. No money and no place to go. But one day when dad starts to beat Tara in the barn when he doesn't like her attitude, James beats him with a large shovel and kills him. He travels back to home, where Tara and Joleen are reunited, but James keeps on trucking. We don't know what happened to him.

Despite the mostly negative reviews I've read about 'Sleepwalking', I wanted to see if Annasophia Robb really did live up to what the critics have been raving the past couple months. And she does, in a huge way. With a natural presence and believable acting, Annasophia displays one of the best performances I've seen from a child actor/actress. While she did a great job in BTT and Have Dreams, she doesn't show any signs of the occasional stiff acting that she had in her previous films. Playing the part of the abandoned and emotionally troubled Tara is a very complex process that not many young actors can endure, yet Annasophia portrays her every emotion smoothly. Her chemistry with Stahl's character was convincing and heartfelt. At first I was a little bit on the skeptical side on whether or not her performance was Oscar-worthy; but after watching this movie, I immediately brushed said thoughts aside.That said, this movie is James's (Nick Stahl) story, and he delivers. His performance really brought out the raw emotion that most of the film lacked. At certain scenes one could just sense the extreme pain and sorrow that James is going through as he grows more fond of his niece, only to see her get taken away, that and other aspects of his character makes a nice buildup to his climactic transformation near the end. Charlize Theron, though only present in a handful of scenes in the film, takes full advantage of them and helps create a truly believable troubled American family. Dennis Hopper is, well...Dennis Hopper. He can pull off playing any crazed and sadistic bastard in a snap and succeeds. Despite his character being as one dimensional as one can get, Hopper does a pretty good job making the film more morbid than it already is.Positives aside, here is where the film gets it's real flaws: the story. Besides extremely powerful performances by the leads, Sleepwalking's story suffers from it's overtly dark tone and predictability. Yes, it's supposed to be a morbid take on abandonment and abuse, but unfortunately that's all there is. The characters stumble from one unlucky bump in the road to another without any real relief for them. Besides the budding almost brother-sister type relationship that James and Tara develops, it doesn't really stop the film from becoming increasingly bleak. And quite honestly, as much as I tried to defend it, I didn't understand James's notion to return to his abusive and bitter father's farm. Once he mentions going there in the film, especially with all the comments that he heard from Tara, predicting hell in Satan's frozen ranch wasn't very far-fetched. I enjoy films that are open to interpretation and don't give out easy answers. However, Sleepwalking's ending hardly even tries to put some sort of resolution. It's an all-throughout morbid storyline that DESERVED a true resolution, sadly it barely had one.I enjoyed Sleepwalking. I loved the characters and the performances (Especially Robb and Stahl), but like the ratings that you've read throughout the web, it was just barely enough to carry the weight of a bland and predictable story.