TOO MUCH SLEEP borrows a story idea from Kurosawa's, STRAY DOG, and a cinematic approach common to almost all of the films of Hal Hartley. David Maquiling's 'slacker opus' is chiefly a repertory vehicle which highlights a variety of oddball soliloquies and character set-pieces which add little to advance the storyline, but do create a very watchable film. Jack Crawford, played with sleepy earnestness by Marc Palmieri, has his gun lifted on a crosstown bus trip after a long night working as a security guard. He knows that he can't go to the police because he shouldn't have had a gun in the first place, but he thinks that the father of one of his friends might be able to help. Eddie DeLuca, played by Pasquale Gaeta, is a local delicatessen owner and self-styled community leader. Imagine a more affable and less acerbic Joe Pesci, and you will have Gaeta's take on his character. The film meanders and shuffles along, and peaks at an absurd confrontation with a man who might have been the fence for the pistol. And, in the final scene, Eddie offers Jack more insight on the ways of the world, before Jack goes off to interview for a new job. I guess he lost the security guard gig, but it really doesn't matter. TOO MUCH SLEEP is not intended to communicate an elaborate plot or a riveting story, but it does manage to showcase a collection of peculiar characters who inhabit a very mild and suburban section of contemporary New Jersey.
Review of Too Much Sleep
