People obviously went to a lot of trouble to make this movie. Shot on location, it has an authentic look. It went straight to video, and although there is much to like, I can see why it didn't make a bigger impression. To paraphrase a classic line, "It could have been a contender".In 1936, a new British colonial officer, John Truscott (Hugh Dancy), begins duty as an administrator of the Iban people of Sarawak. His superior, Henry Bullard (Bob Hoskins), the Governor of the district, initiates him into the ways of his office, which includes sleeping with an Iban woman, Selima (Jessica Alba), who will teach him the language – she is his Sleeping Dictionary.Truscott begins to fall in love with her at about the same time that he meets the governor's daughter, Cecelia (Emily Mortimer), a kind-natured woman who falls in love with him. With class and racial barriers against marrying Selima, Truscott makes a decision that causes unhappiness for nearly everyone, but all is resolved before the end.Writer/director Guy Jenkins journeys into Somerset Maugham territory with this story, which is often witty and captivating, but he doesn't have Maugham's radar for human frailty. Where Maugham or even George Orwell in the not dissimilar "Burmese Days" invariably opt for tougher outcomes, towards the end of "The Sleeping Dictionary", Jenkins takes his foot off the gas, and instead of a finale born out of the conflict he has created, he settles for consensus by all concerned – it's too neat – he lets our emotions off the hook. A harsher approach may have elevated this from the safely romantic to a searing drama you would be unlikely to forget.Bob Hoskins and Hugh Dancy, deliver believable performances and Emily Mortimer's is a poignant one as she realises her husband doesn't really love her. Although Jessica Alba said she didn't like her performance, she is perfect. Well, she is a bit of a perfect person after all, so beautiful it's ridiculous. Her performance is quite understated, which seems right for the part. Noah Taylor as Neville Shipperly is wasted as a strictly by-the-numbers villain.Simon Boswell's score is an odd amalgam. I suspect that in part the movie was temp-tracked with Jerry Goldsmith's brilliant music for "Under Fire", and it influenced about half the final score. The other half is a syrupy love theme, which tends to bring the film into the realm of a Hallmark romance. I can't help feeling that an opportunity was missed to create a unique work incorporating more of the traditional instruments of Sarawak."The Sleeping Dictionary" captures a feeling for the period, and is enjoyable on a number of levels, especially the cast. It's just a pity that the film's second half doesn't deliver on the brilliance of the first half.

This is a nice to watch, entertaining love-movie. It's not always convincing, and not always perfect. But Bob Hoskins performance, and Jessica Albas beauty definitely made this movie worth to watch. (Even though, Jessica Alba couldn't fully convince me with a bad played accent and odd pronunciations.) The nice landscapes and pictures also added towards the enjoyment you can get out of the film. Don't expect anything extraordinary though. The story is nothing new, just the usual Hollywood love story with a love against tradition theme. It's a bit cheesy, but less cheesy than most other Hollywood-love movies. If you have been looking for that anyway, this movie is for you.

I just saw a terrible film called The Sleeping Dictionary. One reviewer on Four Word Film Review (www.fwfr.com) got it right right when he wrote, "From A to Zzzzzzzzz." The story is about an English colonialist jerk that comes to Malaysia to "civilize the savages" so to speak and ends up falling in love with his sleeping dictionary. A sleeping dictionary is a native Malaysian prostitute fluent in English that services Englishmen colonialists and teaches them her native language in return for ... well the movie never really makes that clear, but I can only assume he gives her money or something. Needless to say, the movie focuses a lot more on the "sleeping" part than on the "dictionary" part of the job description. Things get complicated for our young hero when the forbidden love affair gets compounded by her culture, his soap opera domestic situation, and his own boundless stupidity in every major decision he makes throughout the film.So yes, the movie has some major flaws, but on the other hand, it delivered exactly the two things I rented it for in the first place: a beautifully photographed exotic location, and an even more beautifully photographed and exotic woman that plays the sleeping dictionary, Jessica Alba. My friend told me that this crappy movie was her at her most beautiful and damn was he right. She's not a great actress, and doesn't quite pass for Malaysian, and its pretty obvious that they use a body double for the nudity, but who cares? Jessica Alba has that rare face and figure that's more than just sexy, but also beautiful in the way that a Vivaldi violin concerto or a Rembrandt painting is.(P.S. Sorry to all you feminists out there who discourage objectifying women, the "male gaze," etc. etc., but I hope you can understand that I mean no disrespect.)

This movie was brave and enchanting. It is about two star crossed lovers who can't be together because of heritage. It's the primitive version of Romeo and Juliet with an added twist of guilt. Jessica alba's character is so heart breaking to watch. She plays a girl who was forced to follow the rules of a world she was born into. A world that thinks she betrayed everything they stand for. Alba's character struggles with her romantic feelings for the Englishman. Sometimes she feels beneath him, and watching her struggle to find her place in a world she only half belongs is reason to watch it alone. In my opinion Titanic was the best romance movie of all time and this movie comes in a close second.