MovieChat Forums > Sleepless in Seattle (1993) Discussion > Any Walter Fans Out There???!!!

Any Walter Fans Out There???!!!

posted 16 years ago by renegade_rhino
24 replies | jump to latest

I'm fascinated by the character of Walter, only because he seems so antithetical to the cardboard cutout "boyfriend/husband who needs to get dumped so the heroine can end up with the hero."

He seemed like a truly decent person who sincerely loved her for her. Unlike the Hanks character who loved her for an ideal he created in his mind of who this person must be.

I was also riveted by the scene where she breaks up with him. Not at all what I had expected.

Anyone have any thoughts/analyses on Walter?

Anyone who would've picked Walter?

[–] renegade_rhino 16 years ago

anyone?

[–] christpunchers 15 years ago

I wouldn't say I'm in a fan of him but I felt very very sorry for him. He's a nice guy who would have made a great husband, a great father, a family man, with no burden of a past to mess things up. How could Anne leave him? I don't know. But that allergy of his really takes a toll on his life.

[–] archer1267 15 years ago

I know many people feel bad for Walter, but really, I'm sure he wound up fine afterwards, and likely would have met a great woman who'd have been good to him. He deserved more than to be married to someone pining over a guy she'd never met.

It was hard to root for Annie in a way, but I didn't think she was a bitch either for breaking it off with Walter. Like I said, he deserved more and better to end it before they got married. He himself said, I don't want to be a man anyone *settles* for. I've met guys who, on paper, seemed perfect for me but there was a spark that was missing, something that's either there or it isn't. How Annie felt it thru the airwaves was absurd, but this movie only works anyway on multiple suspensions of disbelief :)

I would have picked Walter, but I'm biased because my husband looks like Bill Pullman :)

[–] kchai8 15 years ago

Yes, I felt really bad for Walter. There was nothing really terrible about him, he's a nice a handsome guy, but Annie was cheating on him I have to say. Well, at least emotionally cheating on him. And he was her fiance too! That scene where she breaks up with him is really something. I couldn't believe how accepting he was when she did. He seemed fine by it, not jealous at all, and even encouraged her to go meet Tom Hanks's character. That was the part that made me not like Walter as much. It made it seem like he really wasn't worth it, because he didn't even care that she dumped him...maybe he didn't really love her either. He was portrayed as weak (allergies), boring, and as an underdog...so in this movie Meg Ryan ends up with the best catch and her dream man. I would have picked Walter though, thought I am biased, because I find him more physically attractive than Hanks.

[–] myroseblooms 14 years ago

Actually, I respected him more for his gracious, sane and quiet acceptance of her breaking up with him. He did seem to really love her. As far as him encouraging her to go to the ESBldg, I think that was a part of his love for Annie--he wanted her to be happy, even if it meant her leaving him. He wasn't dumb--he knew she'd been distant. Then she apparently explains the whole thing to him, and what can he say? Make a fuss, throw a glass of champagne in her face and call her a bitch? No, he is humble and gracious. And, hey, think of it this way--as a man, the way he handled things was dignified--he was no jealous ass. Also, his acceptance was done the way he did all things: quietly, conservatively, without fuss, without drawing attention to himself unduly--he was a gentleman. Too gentle, predictable and quiet for Annie, who made it clear she yearned for more. He had his own pride to think of. He could see she'd been different for a while, and she was obsessed--he was wise enough to know that he could say nothing to convince her otherwise, and he probably felt thankful in the end that it all came out that way--he saw she would have been miserable and yearning, so he just let her go her own way.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

[–] RedWheelbarrow 15 years ago

They're both great guys, but, if I were in Annie's place, I'd go with Walter. He's sweet, loving, stable, and she knows him. The other guy (Sam) is a dream.

Of course, that's the whole premise of the movie, though, huh? To believe in the dream.

[–] bluestocking-7 15 years ago

It is important to note that when Annie broke up with Walter, she is NOT sure of whether Sam will reciprocate her feelings or whether they're right for each other. Because Walter is a nice wonderful guy that Annie is leaving for some uncertain future with a guy she doesn't really know, it makes her choice a big sacrifice.

In The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Rosie (Janet Leigh) meets a confused and disoriented Ben Marco (Frank Sinatra) on the train on his way to Washington to visit Raymond Shaw (Lawrence Harvey). She's attracted to him right away and she gives him her phone number. And then in Washington, Ben gets arrested by the police because he beats up the Korean valet of Raymond. Ben uses his only phone call privilege to call Rosie who at the time of the phone call is breaking up her engagement with her fiancee. Because Rosie breaks off the engagement before she's sure that Ben is interested, she doesn't become unlikeable for her choice.

Billy Wilder Page, Movies to See, Play the Smiley Game
www.screenwritingdialogue.com

[–] krazyj2472002 15 years ago

I don't think is about whether Walter was a great guy or not. He just wasn't right for Annie. She was 'settling' by marrying him. Her mother sensed he was not right for her, her friend knew he was not right for her. She had low expectations about marriage. As did her brother "I got married because she said we had to get married or break up...so we got married." Ugh. Take the whole "magic" discussion when she is trying on the wedding dress. She didn't have that with Walter. Everyone saying she should marry him because he'd be a 'good provider, good husband' - all true, but she didn't LOVE him. I have no doubt he found someone much better suited to him who loved him utterly and completely.

[–] Dutchy_1988 15 years ago

Not saying that Walter was right for her (although I think it was more the other way around, he seems like a really nice lovable bloke and she seems kinda mad), but I would've married Walter in a heart beat! He seems like a truely great guy!

[–] tmaj48 15 years ago

You've got an adorable guy who worships the ground you walk on, and you dump
him because 1. There's no "magic." 2. He's got allergies. Oh, yeah, and be sure
to dump him on Valentine's Day, so he can never think about that holiday
again without cringing. Meg Ryan's character should grow up, learn to appreciate
the guy and forget about some stranger that she's in love with because she heard
his voice on the radio. The scene where she glances at Walter, his humidifier
chugging peacefully along, with that look of utter revulsion on her face made
me so angry I wanted to slap her. Here's a good sequel: A few months later,
Tom Hanks' character, realizing what a shallow twit she is, takes his little
brat of a kid and moves out on her; she goes back to NYC and tries to make up
with Walter, but--too late, he's found someone special to lug his box of Kleenex
around, and Meg's out in the cold. HAHA!
(oh, yeah, and Bill Pullman IS cuter than Tom Hanks.)

I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!

[–] greenjae 15 years ago

walter is good to her and she is ungrateful. if it was a movie about a man chasing some woman he sort of knows and leaving his fiance who is good to him, there would be outrage, not swooning!

im a girl and i'd be happy with walter if i loved him in the first place. i think she never loved him but thats all her fault. like the death cab song "cath"

her biggest thing seems to be that he's not romantic enough. ok fine go ahead and say something.

or another song kind of describes her problem

any problems that may arise
but in his mind there can be no sin
if you never criticize
you just keep on repeating
all those empty "I love you's"
until you say you deserve better
I'm gonna lay right into you

You don't know what love is
you just do as your told

[–] jkitteraljr 15 years ago

I just want to thank all the women in this thread for letting a man like me know that there are still loving women out there who appreciate us :)

[–] kisses5050 15 years ago

Love Walter!!! he deserves so much beter than Annie...she is a scatter brained child who if you think about it fell in love with a child!!

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