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Casey’s Reviews

“Sleepless in Seattle” is a Horror Movie

If you swap the genders, no one would consider this a romance

Dr. Casey Lawrence
Reviewsday Tuesday
Published in
6 min readDec 10, 2024

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Promotional Image for Sleepless in Seattle, © TriStar Pictures, 1993

My husband and I were recently looking for a cozy old rom-com and chose Sleepless in Seattle because we’ve been on a Tom Hanks kick lately.

At first, the 1993 movie seems like any romantic comedy. The setup is a classic: Sam (Tom Hanks), a handsome young widower, moves to Seattle with his son, Jonah (Ross Malinger), after losing his wife. Jonah calls a radio show on Christmas Eve and tells the host his Christmas Wish is for his dad to find a new wife and be happy again.

This sweet gesture leads journalist Annie (Meg Ryan) to hear Sam pour his heart out about how much he loved his wife, and how he can’t imagine finding love like that again because it was magic. Sam sure is a catch!

There’s only one problem: Annie is already engaged to boring, but otherwise decent, Walter (Bill Pullman).

Tom Hanks and Ross Malinger on the set of Sleepless in Seattle, © TriStar Pictures, 1993 (via IMDB)

As Annie starts obsessing about Sam-from-Seattle, she starts seeing signs that her relationship with Walter isn’t “meant to be” because they don’t have the “magic” that Sam…

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Reviewsday Tuesday
Reviewsday Tuesday

Published in Reviewsday Tuesday

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Dr. Casey Lawrence
Dr. Casey Lawrence

Written by Dr. Casey Lawrence

Canadian author of three LGBT YA novels. PhD from Trinity College Dublin. Check out my lists for stories by genre/type.

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