The Sleeping Dictionary

2003 "Learn to speak her language."
The Sleeping Dictionary
6.5| 1h49m| R| en| More Info
Released: 18 February 2003 Released
Producted By: Fine Line Features
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

A young Englishman is dispatched to Sarawak to become part of the British colonial government. He encounters some unorthodox local traditions, and finds himself faced with tough decisions of the heart involving the beautiful Selima, the unwitting object of his affections.

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tomsview People obviously went to a lot of trouble to make this movie. Shot on location, it has an authentic look. It went straight to video, and although there is much to like, I can see why it didn't make a bigger impression. To paraphrase a classic line, "It could have been a contender".In 1936, a new British colonial officer, John Truscott (Hugh Dancy), begins duty as an administrator of the Iban people of Sarawak. His superior, Henry Bullard (Bob Hoskins), the Governor of the district, initiates him into the ways of his office, which includes sleeping with an Iban woman, Selima (Jessica Alba), who will teach him the language – she is his Sleeping Dictionary.Truscott begins to fall in love with her at about the same time that he meets the governor's daughter, Cecelia (Emily Mortimer), a kind-natured woman who falls in love with him. With class and racial barriers against marrying Selima, Truscott makes a decision that causes unhappiness for nearly everyone, but all is resolved before the end.Writer/director Guy Jenkins journeys into Somerset Maugham territory with this story, which is often witty and captivating, but he doesn't have Maugham's radar for human frailty. Where Maugham or even George Orwell in the not dissimilar "Burmese Days" invariably opt for tougher outcomes, towards the end of "The Sleeping Dictionary", Jenkins takes his foot off the gas, and instead of a finale born out of the conflict he has created, he settles for consensus by all concerned – it's too neat – he lets our emotions off the hook. A harsher approach may have elevated this from the safely romantic to a searing drama you would be unlikely to forget.Bob Hoskins and Hugh Dancy, deliver believable performances and Emily Mortimer's is a poignant one as she realises her husband doesn't really love her. Although Jessica Alba said she didn't like her performance, she is perfect. Well, she is a bit of a perfect person after all, so beautiful it's ridiculous. Her performance is quite understated, which seems right for the part. Noah Taylor as Neville Shipperly is wasted as a strictly by-the-numbers villain.Simon Boswell's score is an odd amalgam. I suspect that in part the movie was temp-tracked with Jerry Goldsmith's brilliant music for "Under Fire", and it influenced about half the final score. The other half is a syrupy love theme, which tends to bring the film into the realm of a Hallmark romance. I can't help feeling that an opportunity was missed to create a unique work incorporating more of the traditional instruments of Sarawak."The Sleeping Dictionary" captures a feeling for the period, and is enjoyable on a number of levels, especially the cast. It's just a pity that the film's second half doesn't deliver on the brilliance of the first half.
lastliberal No, you don't get to see Jessica Alba's breasts in this film. As far as I know, she has not done a nude scene. There are extremely lovely breasts to look at, but they belong to someone else. Yes, that a huge rip-off, but, what the hell, Emily Mortimer makes up for it somewhat by showing hers, and they are something to see.That out of the way, this was a beautiful film, cinematographically speaking, and it had some fine performances, the two mentioned being among them. Alba was a native girl that fell in love with an English Officer, Hugh Darcy, and he fell in love with her. This being Colonial English territory, this just won't do. Bob Hoskins, in another great performance, puts the kibosh on the deal, certainly at the urging of his wife, played by Brenda Blethyn, another great performance. Darcy is forced to marry their daughter (Mortimer) or face prison for allowing a native group to kill Dutch miners that were killing natives.There is nothing different in the film than what we see every day on the news. Nothing has changed. We have no problem killing thousands of Iraqis to get oil, as the Dutch had no problem killing natives for silver, or the British for whatever they were taking out of Malaysia. Of course, those Iraqis that help us are not good enough to bring to the United States, just as the natives are good for nothing more than bed-mates to teach the language. If there is a god, one hopes that we will all be called to account one day for this madness.The one thing that is great about this movie, aside from the great performances of the characters, is the fact that the ending does come out right.
GHCool I just saw a terrible film called The Sleeping Dictionary. One reviewer on Four Word Film Review (www.fwfr.com) got it right right when he wrote, "From A to Zzzzzzzzz." The story is about an English colonialist jerk that comes to Malaysia to "civilize the savages" so to speak and ends up falling in love with his sleeping dictionary. A sleeping dictionary is a native Malaysian prostitute fluent in English that services Englishmen colonialists and teaches them her native language in return for ... well the movie never really makes that clear, but I can only assume he gives her money or something. Needless to say, the movie focuses a lot more on the "sleeping" part than on the "dictionary" part of the job description. Things get complicated for our young hero when the forbidden love affair gets compounded by her culture, his soap opera domestic situation, and his own boundless stupidity in every major decision he makes throughout the film.So yes, the movie has some major flaws, but on the other hand, it delivered exactly the two things I rented it for in the first place: a beautifully photographed exotic location, and an even more beautifully photographed and exotic woman that plays the sleeping dictionary, Jessica Alba. My friend told me that this crappy movie was her at her most beautiful and damn was he right. She's not a great actress, and doesn't quite pass for Malaysian, and its pretty obvious that they use a body double for the nudity, but who cares? Jessica Alba has that rare face and figure that's more than just sexy, but also beautiful in the way that a Vivaldi violin concerto or a Rembrandt painting is.(P.S. Sorry to all you feminists out there who discourage objectifying women, the "male gaze," etc. etc., but I hope you can understand that I mean no disrespect.)
vodar There are bad movies and there are bad movies, and then there's movies like this. Even counting the truly dreadful Honey this is Jessia's worse outing. Even a 1 is generous, up to me it would get -75. Overly, overly talky, no action worth mentioning, even the 'exotic' scenery is wasted. Relationships between all the characters is so forced it would be laughable, but there's no humor to be found. And I am not against the movie dialog because it's British, but it's all so dull you won't need sleeping pills. Even the (spoiler alert!) nude scene of Jessica Alba, which most males rent this for, is a not very convincing body double that National Geographic wouldn't accept. This is simply one of those dull movies that critics love and win Oscars that cost 10 million to make an only gross $1.99 at the box office. Watching moss grow for the movie's length is more exciting.