SPOILERS AHEAD:

First of all, I really liked the general concept of this film. The idea of a young Englishmen falling in love with a native girl from a British colony surely isn't that original, but it hasn't been overused either.

Furthermore I hoped to get a glimpse of the life in British colonies at that time (especially the social interacting between the British colonial rulers and the native people) and, of course, Jessica Alba.

Well, for those primarily interested in the latter one: Yes, her character has nude scenes, but no, they obviously aren't performed by Jessica Alba. Speaking of that: In my opinion the body double did not even fit Jessica's "size"; they could have done a lot better at this point.

As I stated initially, I really liked this films premise, but the execution comes close to the worst you could have made out of it.

First of all: The movie is fractioned. While this doesn't has to be necessarily bad, each fraction gets it's own little climax, whilst there's nowhere a main climax on sight. Even that could work, if those little climax' would do their job, unfortunately they don't. That's mainly because the film doesn't spend the time to develop them, instead it rushes to get a climax done in order to start another one.

For example: John's "I don't want to have sex unmarried"-dance at the very beginning (lasted maybe 5 minutes and was resolved by pure horniness), their trip to the dying jungle people ("oh look, it's because of the poison, let's tell them and go home"), the matter of John's first departure from Sarawak, his relation to his wife, the attempted murder and death trial afterwards, Henry's relation to Selima, (and so on, and so on). Everything seemed flat, rushed and undeveloped.

For no obvious they made a plot-driven film out of a people-story. That can't work out. The ending concludes this greatly, you virtually could hear the director's thoughts: "Oh, well, we've 2 minutes and some budget left. Let's bring in the bad guy with a gun".

On the pro-side the native/Englishmen relations are done quiet nicely, and not every character is stereotypical; I especially enjoyed the role of Cecil for that matter. The cinematography could've been worse but never reached the potential it doubtlessly had. I'd rank Simon Boswell's score slightly but definitely above average. Speaking of Jessica Alba's performance, well: Her role consists mainly of walking around and looking pretty, she did that without getting injured and if you've seen her in "Idle Hands", that's worth something.

At the end I saw a movie whose creators couldn't fill the (very solid) plot with life. That's particularly sad, since I'd could've been a great film.

My wife and I watched this film not knowing anything about it except a two sentence introduction on a movie-card. We were impressed by all aspects of it-particularly the substance of the script-it was a brave script-a script that should have made people uncomfortable because of the swipes taken at British colonialism and what that evil did on a personal level to everybody concerned. Living as I do in Western Australia, the dark legacy of European colonialism is just below the surface and I have seen firsthand the outlines of the story presented in "The Sleeping Dictionary"-not of course the same geography or the same details but once colonialism left its tread on the floor of world history it matters little the particulars.

The enormity of the personal tragedy of that period is something not to be derisively dismissed as one commentator remarked-as a film fit for screening at the old folks home on a Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately the world is still dealing with that evil period of recent history.

I was moved by all the decisions that the characters faced throughout the film. Brenda Blethyn's character as the wife of Hoskin's colonial official was as much a victim as anybody in the film. Although she emerges as the "baddie" she must try, with little background, to stitch together a semblance of what she feels is an acceptable canvas in order to paint her English life-such of it as there is in Sarawak. And what of Hoskin's torn character-a man who can only fall back on "duty" to country in order to find reason for the completion of duties that he recognizes as damaging to all involved.

A brave film-look for it!

The Sleeping Dictionary is a film that when I first heard about it, I thought it would be just another dumb melo-romantic-drama. But I was wrong. This film has great feeling, great sexuality (fans of Jessica Alba and Dark Angel will be immensly pleased), and good craftwork. It is a very good movie.

The plot involves a young Englishman (Hugh Dancey) who comes to a South American place to civilize the area. But then he meets a young woman called the sleeping dictionary (Alba, in a great role), and of course the love comes around. Conventional story takes many turns and avoids many cliches that in another film would be taken. Sweeping photography and excellent performances propell this film to must-seeness. A-