As Sleepwalk With Me begins, the filmmaker lets the audience figure out three basic things about the main character. First, he has the perfect girlfriend and, no matter what happens in his life, he will never do any better. Second, despite her patience after being together eight years, it’s time for him to marry her or not. Third, he is absolutely unready to make that commitment.
That filmmaker is co-writer/co-director Mike Birbiglia, a standup comic whose screenplay is based on his autobiographical one man show. His protagonist’s unpromising career as a comedian is feeding his ambivalence to marry a woman whose career has already stabilized. As he feels more and more relationship and career pressures, he develops REM Behavior Disorder – a rare and particularly dangerous form of sleepwalking.
The sleepwalking, of course, sets up some funny moments, as do the stumbling start to the standup career, the girlfriend angst and the usual maddening set of parents. In a comic triumph, Birbiglia gently and intelligently milks the laughs out of each situation while never losing focus on the fundamental truth of each situation.
The girlfriend is beautiful, good-hearted, smart, sexy and full of life. She is played impeccably by Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under. Starting Out in the Evening). Veterans James Rebhorn and Carole Kane are excellent as the protagonist’s bickering parents. Here’s a nice touch: the pioneer scientist of sleep disorder science himself, Stanford professor Dr. William C. Dement, provides a funny cameo.