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Poster for Light Sleeper

Light Sleeper

He was a good man in a deadly business. She was his only way out.

1992 · 1h 43m · R Crime, Drama
Directed by Paul Schrader

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Overview

A drug dealer with upscale clientele is having moral problems going about his daily deliveries. A reformed addict, he has never gotten over the wife that left him, and the couple that use him for deliveries worry about his mental well-being and his effectiveness at his job. Meanwhile someone is killing women in apparently drug-related incidents.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
89%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Light Sleeper is emblematic of an era, and is recommended on that basis and on the excellent quality of it acting.

Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune
Fresh

It's a failure perhaps, but an honorable failure. If it isn't saved by grace, it has many saving graces.

Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times
Fresh

With his deliberate speech patterns and haunted, reptilian good looks, Dafoe is an almost nobly sad presence at the center of the film. There's something wonderfully calm about his performance, and it holds Light Sleeper together.

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Fresh

Dafoe completely inhabits the character, appearing in virtually every scene and developing a fascinating psychological profile.

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times
Fresh

For all of Schrader's capacity for spectacular self-laceration and spiritual agony, Light Sleeper finds him able for the first time to express a certain peacefulness, and the effect is delicate and discreet.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune

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