While You Were Sleeping: The Best Christmas Movie

Recently, someone asked me if I could recommend one movie over all others, what would it be? After stalling and declaring this to be an impossible question, I finally confessed that I would always pick While You Were Sleeping. When pressed to answer why I love this movie so much, I found I had so many reasons that really, it was a travesty I hadn't officially declared my love on the blog. So today, on Christmas Day 2017, I give you my reasons for why While You Were Sleeping is the Best Christmas Movie ever.

1. Sandra Bullock. In 1995, Bullock was at the height of her stardom (well, I say height; she has peaked and never come down since, as far as I'm concerned). As Lucy Eleanor Moderatz, she is the most relatable and adorable woman portrayed on screen. Lucy works for the Chicago Transit Authority, and at the beginning of the film, your heart bleeds for her when she is forced to take the Christmas Day shift as she is the only employee who has no family. When she crushes on a commuter that she sees every day but has never spoken to, you completely understand that kind of silly, unrequited love. And when she saves said commuter after he is pushed onto the train tracks and then accidentally gets mistaken for his fiancee by his entire family, you are 100% down for this lady to bag her prince and get whatever she wants from this world.

2. The script. As detailed above, the premise of this movie is fairly absurd and depends on a lot of hilarious misunderstandings that could only happen in the confines of a romantic comedy. But writers Daniel G. Sullivan and Fredric Lebow have written a script that makes you completely suspend your disbelief and fall for this story hook, line, and sinker. I don't care that so much of the film depends on Lucy getting overheard talking to herself some times but then completely ignored other times. All I care about is the whip-smart banter, never-ending complications, physical comedy, and sizzling romance when she meets her "fiance's" brother, Jack.

3. Bill Pullman. Oh, Bill Pullman. In 1995, he was a charming, crinkly-eyed, blond god. What with his work in this movie and Casper in the same year, he easily won my eight-year-old heart (yes, I have loved this movie since I watched it on a plane when I was eight; I told you, my love runs DEEP). There is something about his quiet, growly demeanor throughout this entire movie that will set any woman's heart on fire. And other parts. Anyhoo, that's enough about Bill Pullman, moving on...

4. The rest of the cast. Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman are great and all (as is Peter Gallagher when he eventually wakes up from his coma), but this is really a movie about the gigantic, warm, and wonderful Callaghan clan. As an only child growing up in Bahrain, this large, boisterous, insane family was what I imagined every kid in America grew up with, and I loved them like they were my own. They have ridiculous conversations at dinner time, barge into everyone's business, keep forcing Lucy into awkward situations, but ultimately they are brimming over with so much love and genuine good-naturedness that you can see why Lucy wants to pretend she's a part of this family forever. Peter's godfather Saul (Jack Warden) was my first exposure to a Jewish person, and he taught me some Yiddish words that made no sense to me at the time, but definitely make sense now. And tearing myself away from the Callaghans, there's Joe Fusco, Jr. The irritating Italian son of Lucy's landlord, who is forever pestering her and being rebuffed. Even he gets a redemptive story arc that lets you see he has a good heart, even if he is a total clown. In While You Were Sleeping, there are no villains. Apart from Ashley Bartlett Bacon of course. 

5. The setting. It's Christmas. There are lights, twinkly trees, and bonhomie. There's snow. More importantly, there's ice outside Lucy's apartment, which leads to the single most charming and chemistry-laden scene in a romantic comedy. No human being can watch that scene without falling a little bit in love. Go on. Watch it. I dare you.

I have watched While You Were Sleeping so many times I have lost count. It is always on at Christmas time and if I come across it on TV, I will watch, whether it's just beginning or about to end. Every time I watch it, there's a new joke that makes me laugh, or an old one I had forgotten but can now appreciate again. There's another gesture or look that makes me sigh a happy sigh. There's a new Callaghan family member who becomes my favorite. This is the movie that makes me want to honeymoon in Florence and adopt a white Persian cat named Fluffy. I think it informed a large part of my fashion sense because Lucy always looks slightly disheveled and wears deliciously comfy, baggy sweaters, and now I can't imagine ever wearing a sweater that I can't hide my hands in.

Depending on my personal circumstances, watching this movie always takes on a whole new meaning. When I moved to New York and watched this movie for the umpteenth time, it felt like I was watching with fresh new eyes because I was an American now (also I finally understood the Yiddish). In medical school, I had a classmate whose name was actually Joe Fusco, and my opinion of him was forever tarnished. And when I was on the plane back from Singapore a few weeks ago, and saw that While You Were Sleeping was randomly one of the limited movie options on my Japanese airline, I pressed Play immediately. Because it was clearly meant to be.