Slight family problem.  Joleen’s (Charlize Theron) boyfriend is arrested.  Both her and teen daughter, Tara (AnnaSophia Robb of JUMPER and BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA) crash at brother James’ (Nick Stahl) shack.  Oddly enough, Joleen disappears one morning.  James and Tara bond and sort out their lives in the weird family drama SLEEPWALKING.

It is odd to learn that scriptwriter Zac Satnford and director Maher have worked together before in the little heard film THE SCUMSCRUBBER.  Maher’s direction takes no notice of the narrative.  SLEEPWALKING is advertised as a drama on a girl’s struggle to come to terms with her mother’s abandonment.  Yet the title comes instead, from a line James utters to Tara at the end of the movie: “My whole life I feel like I have been sleepwalking.” The film has uncomfortable shifts from focusing on different characters.  First Joleen is given the limelight, followed by Tara, then James (a major part) and Tara again.  If the theme is the mother/daughter relationship, the character of James should lie in the background.  Another inconsistency has James trusting the local caring cop, then having the caring cop do otherwise.

The script fails to explain the reason of Joleen’s disappearance or the purpose of her return.  Tara’s grandfather (played with extreme nastiness by Dennis Hopper) gets his comeuppance at the end but the raison d’etre of his behavior is left open as well.

What can one say of performances when the film fails?  Theron overshines her role and Stahl does one of his usual bullied characters as in BULLY and IN THE BEDROOM.  But Woody Harrelson as the dope smoking, beer guzzling Randall steals the show.  But isn’t Harrleson like this in real life?  Randall puts up James at his place and utters the funniest welcome line in an otherwise pessimistic movie: “Don’t worry about rent – you have been f***ed enough already!”

One wishes SLEEPWALKING could have turned out better with all the talent that went into it.  SLEEPWALKING only goes to prove that the most important element in a good movie is a decent script.