MovieChat Forums > Sleepless in Seattle (1993) Discussion > The thing I hate about this move:

The thing I hate about this move:

posted 15 years ago by ewanfanatic88
10 replies | jump to latest

They make people with food allergies look like the bad guy! I am allergic to even MORE foods/things tha Walter. People should not laugh about deadly, uncureable 'diseases' that come from birth! As soon as they were acting all weird around him cos of his allergies I immediately turned off my TV! In my ENTIRE life I have only seen 1 commercial about the deadly effects of food allergies, and that was a few weeks ago. If somene eats a peanut butter sandwich then touches a door knob an I touch that doorknob they eat something with my hands, I DIE!

"Go on. Use my body like the pages of a book. Of your book." -Jerome (Ewan McGregor)

[–] iamweaver 15 years ago

I think you need to look it as just one part of the picture.

Walter is a nice, predictable fellow - his life is constrained, programmed, and runs on rails without deviating. The allergies are (IMO) just a device emphasizing the restrictions his personality places on his life, and certainly underlines the inability for many spontaneous activity that those of us more fortunate can do.

One of the nicest kids I know - smart, talented, and funny - has serious allergies to a host of things. She can be mentally spontaneous, but her physical life simply cannot be - there are so many things she can't eat, touch, etc. My church's youth group just went on a concert tour, and there was a lot of work that we chaperons had to do to ensure that she would be OK from the food, housing, etc. the whole time.

[–] ewanfanatic88 15 years ago

Walter was born with his allergies so his 'issues' as you call them can't be helped. Maybe he just needed the right woman to bring him out of his shell cos it's obvious Meg is a b!tch if she'd leave him for a guy she heard on the radio

"Go on. Use my body like the pages of a book. Of your book." -Jerome (Ewan McGregor)

[–] iamweaver 15 years ago

I recognize that - I am merely talking about the screenwriters using his allergies as an emphasizing point.

And I wouldn't call Annie a b!*$% - though I would call her foolish. It's made quite clear from early in the movie that she's working desperately hard to convince herself that she's "in love" and found the right man - when it is pretty obvious that she has no serious attraction to the man, and that she has many moments when she wonders what the heck she's doing in this relationship.

As an older man myself, I place less stock in "magic" and more in shared goals, lifestyles and the willingness to compromise when it comes to making a real-world relationship work - but this movie deliberately divorces itself from reality, and is a treatise on the romantic fantasy ideals, and IMO must be viewed in that light. And in that light, Walter and Annie are woefully unsuited.

However - if you really don't want to look at this movie in that romantic glow, I am not sure you are right, anyway. Walter doesn't need to find the right woman to change him and "bring him out of his shell". He needs to find a woman who accepts him as he is, and wants to live the same kind of life that he wants. And that woman is not Annie. She's not a b!tch for not being that woman. She's simply not the right woman for him, and thank goodness she recognized that.

Back in 1990, I was engaged to a wonderful woman who (thankfully) recognized that she and I didn't match up - and she broke off our engagement. It was painful at the time, but thank God she did so - we really were not suited for each other. I can fully understand and agree with Annie's position. She didn't leave him for "a guy on the radio" - she even says so there in the restaurant. She left him, because it was the right thing for her to.

[–] ewanfanatic88 15 years ago

I agree with what you said about Annie and Walter not being suited for each other and that she left him for her own reasons, not just Tom Hanks. That's not what I meant. Now I have a different opinion: I belive Annie needs time alone without a man. She should decide what she really wants. It's like she's nothing without a man and she should learn that men aren't everything.

"Go on. Use my body like the pages of a book. Of your book." -Jerome (Ewan McGregor)

[–] rizdek 11 years ago

It would've been much better if she'd have broken up with Walter BEFORE she began flirting with flirting with Sam. If they aren't meant to be they aren't meant to be...for whatever reason. But to chase off while still securely engaged seemed underhanded. I watch it every so often, but it isn't one of my favorite movies. I like Hanks and Ryan...along with some of the supporting cast...Rita Wilson and Robert Reiner. I ingest a heaping helping of suspended disbelief and move on.

There are MANY classic stories that have men/women doing equally unfair and dishonest things and folks lap 'em up like milk{:

And as to the OP, I agree, making food allergies a point in his personality wasn't that good an idea. I wonder that they'd think it was appropriate.

But of course, I am being aggressively naive!

[–] bleachnj 15 years ago

I think you're taking this too seriously. I have really severe allergies too and I wasn't offended in the least by that part. It's a joke. It's funny.

[–] ewanfanatic88 15 years ago

well i's not funny to me!

Academy Awards = the Creme de la Creme of Bull Sh*t

[–] LukeLovesFilm28 11 years ago

The film does kind of treat Walter like crap. It can make anyone in the theater look on him like the ultimate drip of a man. BUT, he is a very nice guy, maybe even too nice.

But, the way I look at it, Meg just wasn't the right girl for him. Walter or should I say, Bill Pullman would finally get the girl in While You Were Sleeping.

[–] FridayOnElmStreet 10 years ago

Walter was actually the most likable guy in this film.

[–] edinak-19437 10 years ago

Although I - luckily - don't have any food allergies, I agree that this is one of the weakest points of the plot. To their defense, back in the 90's, awareness and diagnoses of food allergies was not as prominent as it is today. But still, I think that constructing Walter's food allergies as one of the facets of his personality, which Annie finds boring / unromantic / restricting, and which makes her choose Sam over Walter, is a big flaw of the plot. Meg Ryan was pretty likable to me throughout the movie EXCEPT in how she related to Walter - how she was stringing him along, and then dumped him, and then he just smiled and agreed... At that moment Walter was the hero, not Meg and not Tom Hanks. This could have been mitigated if Nora Ephron 1) chose other, intentional behavior flaws for Walter (like if he was portrayed as controlling, or whiny, or whatever - but not allergic, which is something that is not his fault!) or 2) gave some kind of reward / closure for Walter by hooking him up with another supporting female character (like, if Annie's friend Becky was played by an actress slightly more attractive than Rosie O'Donnell... and had a secret crush on Walter... and they got together when Annie dumped her... would it not have been NICER...?) I learned from this mistake of the script and provided a "reward" for the discarded men in my romantic comedy https://www.facebook.com/inadream.short. My heroine actually hooks up the guy who is not for her, with the woman of his dreams!!! And I think that even though this is just an ancillary plot point, it makes the emotional impact of the script all the better.