SnoopyStyle James 'Speedy' Reedy (Nick Stahl) takes in his sister Joleen (Charlize Theron) and her daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) after Joleen's boyfriend Warren gets caught growing pot. Joleen takes off with another guy. James is a hopeless slacker. He loses his job after missing work trying to find Joleen for Tara's sake. Social services puts Tara into foster care. James move into the basement of his friend Randall (Woody Harrelson). Tara runaways from her foster parents and James takes her on a road trip ending up back home with his cruel father (Dennis Hopper) on his rundown farm.There is a bit of misdirection. This turns out to be Nick Stahl's movie and his sleepwalking through his troubled life. His character is very inert in contrast to the more intriguing Charlize Theron. She doesn't get to interact with the other characters for most of the movie. AnnaSophia Robb tries to play the wild child character with mixed results. Dennis Hopper turns into a crazy character which puts to question why James would go back home. The depressed tone drags the story down despite its strong cast.

chickenpuss 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.

TxMike 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.

Nick Damian WHile the movie itself is depressing, the setting certainly looks like an abandoned wasteland, the movie was good.The movie was great in fact.All characters were believable and their performances were outstanding.Charlize blows me away all the time and after seeing this, I am just amazed at how great she is as a performer.All the cast was good - Woody is such a versatile performer. Good, bad, crazy, brave - this guy has great range.Saskatchewan where I had lived very briefly is as depressing as it is shown here.WHomever did chose the locations, certainly knew how to make Saskatchewan look even worse than it is.With great camera work, great performances - it's just a solid film.Not my favorite. Never will be,but just good in it's own ways.Charlize has such a beautiful face, even when she has swollen eyes, she still looks amazing.