He Sees You When You're Sleeping

Pretty actors in one of the worst TV movies I have ever seen. Don't get me wrong - I like bad movies, but this just seems to go on and on. It isn't that the acting is particularly bad, it's just boring. I thought it was almost over only to find it had an hour left. I used it for noise value and cleaned the house.

It's one thing to put a movie on TV. Another to shoot one and put it directly on TV. Another to shoot a movie as if you never intended to do anything with it other than put it on TV. And man does this one smell of video!

The story's okay, with some adaptations from the novel, but that's no big deal. I can forgive that. I can even forgive the sappiness of the stoy; judge a movie on its own genre.

What I can't forgive is the production. I admit that PAX is no big media centre, but surely they can still draw a little better talent than the casting for this flick. The leads all look like they're doing a commercial for local TV or else hamming it up in a civic theatre. People sometimes seem to forget that when there's a camera involved, they don't need to act out as they might on stage.

What's worse is the cinematography which is framed like a daytime drama, and lit with less creativity than that. The staging is simple -- two people talking should face each other in the middle of the room. The action should be center-stage. Et cetera.

You can bear with it, but the production doesn't do half justice to what the authors of the novel deserve...

First off, the title is very misleading. Not about a stalker-in fact this one actually deviates a bit from the usual MHC formula. A selfish man dies and is given a chance to help his family and get into heaven. Cons: Terrible singing and full of odd facial expressions from the cast. A few noticeable plot holes too. Pros: Overall an okay movie for the family with some mild holiday themes.

Call me a glutton for punishment, but I usually watch Mary Higgins Clark's stories turned into films, even though they're generally schlockily produced, slow as molasses, badly acted and accompanied by Psycho music. I can't believe I'm writing this, but I'd almost rather see Grosso-Jacobsen, who normally produce movies from her books, than Lifetime.

The film stars Cameron Bancroft, one of the worst actors I've ever seen, as Sterling Brooks, a self-absorbed stock broker who is killed by a traveling golf ball (probably to stop him from yelling all his lines at the top of his lungs) and goes to the other side (cue the dry ice).

There he meets Joe, played by another great thespian, Greg Evigan, trying but failing to speak with some sort of British accent who is supposed to help him qualify for heaven since right now, his fate hasn't been decided.

Joe and Sterling return to earth and Sterling learns that he has to help his old girlfriend Annie (Erika Eleniak) and her daughter (Nickol Tschenscher). Annie overheard mobsters talking and planning to set fire to a house and follow it up with a murder, and her evidence is critical in a case against them.

She has been under protection and separated from her daughter, who is miserable. Joe wants Sterling to make sure they're reunited, and with the girl's father, for Christmas.

Eleniak owns this type of film, so she knows how to handle herself. In this production, she plays a singer who does jazzed up versions of Christmas songs. I'm not talking about jazzing up Jolly Old St. Nick, she's jazzing up hymns like Silent Night.

This story has similarities to Ghost and It's a Wonderful Life, and Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark can write good stories that don't make for heavy reading.

"He Sees You When You're Sleeping" could have been a lovely Christmas story and a real tear-jerker, but for me, the acting wrecked it. I say spend a little extra money and get another one or two good actors and throw in a good director. You might be surprised at the results.

Movie has provoking ideas about the afterlife, second chances and values. Tries too hard to be crime thriller, melodrama and kids movie, all at the same time. If the plot were not a bit too predictable and saccharine, could be a deep and interesting film. At least the ending is rather unexpected.