A high-stakes thriller that struggled to find its footing at the global box office
In short: Sleepless, a 2017 action film featuring Jamie Foxx, follows a police officer navigating a dangerous underworld to rescue his kidnapped son. Despite its star-studded cast and a premise rooted in a French original, the production faced significant critical headwinds and a modest financial performance during its theatrical run.
Directed by Baran bo Odar and scripted by Andrea Berloff, the film serves as a remake of the 2011 French production Sleepless Night. The narrative centers on Vincent Downs, a law enforcement officer who finds himself entangled with Las Vegas mobsters after he and his partner, Sean Cass, intercept a shipment of cocaine. The situation escalates rapidly when Downs's 16-year-old son is abducted, forcing him to balance his personal desperation with a secret, two-year undercover operation aimed at dismantling corruption within his own department.
The production process, which commenced in June 2015 across Atlanta and Las Vegas, faced a shifting release schedule. Originally slated for late February 2017, the film was moved up to January 13, 2017, by distributor Open Road Films. Upon release, it competed against several other titles, including Monster Trucks and The Bye Bye Man, ultimately opening to $8.4 million and finishing eighth at the box office. Its total worldwide gross reached approximately $32.9 million against a production budget of $30 million.
Critical reception was largely unfavorable. Review aggregators paint a picture of a project that failed to capitalize on its potential; Rotten Tomatoes reports a 25% approval rating, while Metacritic assigned it a score of 34 out of 100. Critics often pointed to a reliance on tired genre tropes. Interestingly, audience sentiment diverged from the critical consensus, with CinemaScore polling showing a B+ grade and PostTrak reporting a 77% positive score from viewers, suggesting a disconnect between professional reviewers and the general public.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Sleepless (2017 film)
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