ReelWorld Film Festival: Sleeping with the Fishes Review

Sleeping with the Fishes (2013)

Cast: Steven Strait, Ana Ortiz, Gina Rodriguez
Director: Nicole Gomez Fisher
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy

Editor’s Notes: The following review is part of our coverage for the 2014 ReelWorld Film Festival. For more information on the festival visit www.reelworld.ca and follow ReelWorld on Twitter at@ReelWorldFilm.

Though a tad on the nose with its title and characters’ names, Sleeping with the Fishes is a passable slice of life drama that follows a young woman (Alexis FISH, hah…) as she contends with the death of her unfaithful husband and the subsequent loss of her sense of identity as she tries to reclaim her place in the world while dealing with body image issues driven by an overbearing mother with an irrational fear of curves. Alexis’ arsenal of self-help material seems ineffective as game show dreams invade her unconscious thoughts with unwanted reminders of a lack of self worth and her insane mother as she prepares for a trip to the comforts and chaos of home with all of its unbearable but familiar idiosyncrasies that one secretly hopes will remain there forever.

Though a tad on the nose with its title and characters’ names, Sleeping with the Fishes is a passable slice of life drama that follows a young woman (Alexis FISH, hah…) as she contends with the death of her unfaithful husband…

Alexis is played with wild-eyed chaotic charisma by up and coming actress Gina Rodriguez who captures the insecurities that only home can intensify with cloying charm, occasionally irritating but with an effortless genuineness as she contends with the issues that drive the neuroses of young adults trying to define their own paths with the burden of well-meaning family members causing “helpful” distractions. She makes a trip “back home”, a terrifying and comforting place for any insecure young adult, and the old and worn family dynamic finds itself back in its comfortable groove. Sisters gossip in the impenetrable sanctuary of a cluttered bathroom as intimate handheld cameras follow them into this sacred venue of countless secret childhood conversations and momentary refuge from the maelstrom of family.

The family eat dinner in the kitchen as the shimmering polish of the dining room table shines from the background in unsullied boredom. A visiting daughter is no reason to make a big fuss and possibly scuff its untouched glassy sheen, and keeping an eye on how much the curvy Alexis eats is far more important as the mother falls back into her familiar nagging ways. The mother and father are complementary opposites, the mother an overbearing Latina woman and the father a reserved conscientious Jewish man, but it is in their complementary differences that the two form their idiosyncratic cohesive bond. The film’s strengths lie in these simple honest moments of family life and the comforting imperfections of home.

Alexis finds the film’s requisite love interest carrying a heavy box back and forth across the frame, a silly contrivance that gives him a plausible reason to have his biceps in a perpetually flexed state while they engage in games of strategically disinterested flirtation. The wounds of her dead husband eventually erode and she regains her sense of identity as plot threads resolve as one would expect, but plot isn’t where the strengths of the Sleeping with the Fishes reside. Its best qualities are in unassuming moments that reveal a filmmaker who is well acquainted with the insanities of visiting home with its familiar menagerie of artifacts and maniacs that fill it with joy and frustration.