Sleepers – Movie Review

“Sleepers” has the kind of cast which almost guarantees it a large audience; Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Brad Pitt are just some of the well-known actors. But, despite some good performances, particularly from some of the younger actors and predictably, from De Niro in his role as a streetwise Catholic priest, this Barry Levinson film is shallow and unenjoyable.

The “based on a real events” story line traces the lives of four friends who grow up in New York’s “Hell’s Kitchen” neighbourhood during the 1960s. Their childhood is nostalgically portrayed in this harsh environment as a mixture of cruelty and innocence. After a disastrous prank the boys are sent to a Reform School where they are humiliated and physically and sexually abused. The claustrophobic, nightmarish atmosphere of the Reform school is vividly portrayed, and Kevin Bacon is frighteningly convincing as the sadistic and twisted supervisor, Nokes. Although this all makes for unpleasant, and depressing viewing, the first half of the film, particularly the scene where the boys fight back against the guards during a game of football (and suffer the consequences) is probably the only part of “Sleepers” worth staying awake for.

In its second half the film shifts abruptly from the reform school and childhood to adulthood and the violent revenge which two of the characters, now “hardened killers” (as we are informed by the irritatingly knowing voiceover which runs throughout) exact from Nokes. It is difficult to identify the characters from childhood with their adult counterparts, especially when the very ordinary looking Hell’s Kitchen boys have all turned into slightly grunged male model look-alikes. As a result of this, and the uniformly shallow characterisation, it’s difficult to relate to the characters or feel much sympathy for the deep emotional scars they supposedly bear. The nasty revenge which is carried out on each of the guards from the reform school just seems pointless, and I didn’t really care about the courtroom verdict, it was blatantly obvious who was guilty and why.

“Sleepers” tries way too hard to portray the effects of childhood trauma on adult lives; and it has all the subtlety of a crowbar. Be warned on two other counts; “Sleepers” is very much a “boys” film, women don’t really feature at all except for Minnie Driver’s fairly token role as the group’s extremely tolerant and understanding friend, and the final scene is definitely cringe material. All in all “Sleepers” is just one big depressing yawn.