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Poster for The Perfect Sleep

The Perfect Sleep

2009 · 1h 39m · R Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Directed by Jeremy Alter

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Overview

In a timeless city, a man with no name returns to the violent, brutal domain of assassins he left ten years before – back when they dubbed him The Mad Monk for his disregard for his own life and his intense devotion to one woman, Porphyria; a beautiful, luminescent woman; the girl he grew up with; the love of his life; the one thing he has ever wanted; the one thing he can never have.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
38%
Tomatometer
Rotten

There are shadows on top of shadows. It's the film noir universe, all right. What does the title refer to? Perhaps to what you will enjoy during the film.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Rotten

Easy on the eyes but brutal on the ears, The Perfect Sleep fuses Shakespearean tragedy and noir iconography into a strange, lovely, leaden ball of confusion.

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Fresh

The disjointed story is no more comprehensible than The Big Sleep. Though Alter is no Howard Hawks and Pardoe and Sanchez are no Bogie and Bacall, this movie looks great. You won't nap through The Perfect Sleep.

Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Fresh

Alter's film is a rare pleasure.

Mark Holcomb, Time Out New York
Rotten

Style significantly trumps substance in The Perfect Sleep, a good-looking but convoluted homage to film noir, Russian literature and Shakespearean tragedy, among a few too many other things.

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

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