I’ll pretty much watch anything with Tom Hanks. When the day comes that someone releases “Bosom Buddies” on DVD, it’ll join my collection. Heck, if he made a couple of Budweiser commercials and released them on DVD, I’d probably get those, too. There’s just something inherently likable about Hanks, and to top it off, he’s a fine actor. Then there’s the matter of Meg Ryan. The actress that should be everyone’s dream girl. She’s bright, beautiful and funny, well judging from some of her off screen antics, most of us might have to base that dream off of the characters she’s played. You would think that getting them together would be instant magic. They’ve made three movies together over the years and two of them were less than stellar. However, one of those little films went on to be hugely popular and remains a favorite amongst modern romantic comedies. When “Sleepless in Seattle” came out ten years ago, it was one of those sleeper hits. A movie everyone expected would do well, but not as well as it ended up doing.

The premise of “Sleepless in Seattle” wasn’t necessarily original, but it still made for a really good date flick. Tom Hanks plays a widowed father of a young boy. His son convinces him he needs to find someone and talks him into going onto a radio talk show. Almost overnight he becomes deluged with thousands of letters from women all over the country who are moved by what he has to say. Meg Ryan is a writer who becomes convinced that they are destined to be together. She just has to overcome a few obstacles before she can go after her soul mate, like the fact hat she is currently engaged to another man.

I’ll admit to being a hopeless romantic, and I love movies like this as much as any other style. I even put “Somewhere in Time” on my top 50 movies of all time list. “Sleepless in Seattle” has everything I like in a romantic comedy, likeable stars, a fairly predictable plot, and a nice tearjerker ending.

Sony / Columbia Tristar has seen fit to release a 10th Anniversary DVD, and over all it’s pretty good, but I really would have liked to have seen more in the way of extras. Granted, we have a commentary by Director Nora Ephron and Associate Producer Deliah Ephron that is full of anecdotes, a 12-minute featurette about love in the movies, and a music video by Celine Dion and Clive Griffin, but that’s about it. It would have been interesting to hear commentary from Hanks and Ryan, or at least have gotten some newer interviews from them.

The featurette was still pretty good though. It included snippets of interviews with both Ephrons, Hanks, Ryan and some ‘love expert’ who all talk about love in the movies and how it is interpreted. There are scenes from the film edited in to illustrate whatever points they bring up.

If you want a good movie to sit and watch with your significant other, “Sleepless in Seattle” is a perfect choice. If you already own an earlier version of the film, I really don’t see any reason to pick this one up. But if you don’t have it at all in your collection, now is the time to add it.

Directed by: Nora Ephron
Starring: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, Rosie O’Donnell, Rob Reiner
Extras: Nora and Deliah Ephron Audio Commentary, Love in the Movies Featurette, Music Video: “When I Fall in love” by Celine Dion and Clive Griffin, Talent Files
Specifications: Widescreen (1.85:1) and Fullscreen (1.33:1), English Stereo
Studio: Sony / Columbia Tristar
Release Date: 10/7/2003
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG (For Some Language)
Website

We'll give Sleepless in Seattle a B.