If you're used to Hollywood-style movies, you'll need a little mental adjustment and patience to enjoy the offbeat comedy "Too Much Sleep." But it'll be worth it.
You like interesting locales? This is set in suburban New Jersey. Beautiful people delivering snappy dialogue? With a couple of exceptions, this movie shows ordinary-looking folks, usually spouting inane chatter.
Clever heroes? When the two main good guys track down a crime suspect and she tells them to get lost, they don't have a clue what to do next.
And the background noise! From the groan of the bus engine during a pivotal scene, to the mindless music in a deli, to the roar of an overhead airliner as a young man and woman ponder love in a park, these sounds at first seem a puzzling distraction.
But soon it all becomes clear.
This cleverly drawn setting of very ordinary life as a backdrop for sinister doings is part of the fun. Here, quirky characters pop out like diamonds on a dishrag. And so do the bizarre twists that show up in that ordinary chatter, sudden revelations of the kind that usually make you want to get out of a conversation fast.
The story follows Jack Crawford, a 24-year-old night watchman (Marc Palmieri). Riding home from work one day on the bus, he finds himself distracted by the beautiful Kate (Nicol Zanzarella). After she leaves, Jack realizes his handgun has been stolen. She was part of a scam.
The rest of the movie which marks the impressive feature film debut of David Maquiling as writer and director is about Jack's attempts to find his gun and, for reasons only partly related to the crime, Kate. He gets help from an older man, Eddie, played by Pasquale Gaeta, who steals the show as a garrulous but street-smart guide to the underbelly of the bland suburb.
Along the way, Jack meets people like a friendly male dancer in a bar who's really a musician waiting for his big break but who, in the meantime, has no trouble beating Jack up in the parking lot when his boss tells him to. But then he flips back to his nice side, sympathetically advising Jack on the use of painkillers and cold compresses.
Jack grows into his sleuth role, starting out as a clueless and rather sleepy young man and becoming a clever guy who takes control of his quest. By the end, you think there might be some promise there. For the movie itself, that realization comes a lot sooner.
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