Sleepless in Seattle

Sam Baldwin has been widowed and is raising his young son Jonah in Seattle, where both are struggling with the loss. Jonah, hoping to see his father happy again, calls a radio talk show and describes the situation to a national audience. The broadcast reaches Annie Reed, a journalist in Baltimore who is engaged to be married. Even though she and Sam have never met and live on opposite sides of the country, Annie becomes convinced that the two of them are meant to be together, and the question becomes whether their paths can actually cross.

Nora Ephron directed Sleepless in Seattle, which was released in June 1993 and was her first film as director. She wrote the screenplay with David S. Ward and Jeff Arch, and Gary Foster produced it. Meg Ryan plays Annie and Tom Hanks plays Sam, with Ross Malinger as Jonah, Bill Pullman as Walter, Rosie O'Donnell as Becky and Barbara Garrick as Victoria; the production credits dozens of cast and crew members. Made for 21 million dollars, the film earned about 228 million dollars worldwide, a large return on its budget.

Audience reaction is steady rather than rapturous. On IMDb the film holds 6.8 out of 10 from roughly 206,000 votes, while on TMDB it scores 6.7 from about 2,700 votes. A critics' rating of 6.8 from 61 reviews places professional opinion in much the same range as the general public's. Ephron followed this debut behind the camera with Mixed Nuts, Michael, You've Got Mail, Lucky Numbers, Bewitched and Julie & Julia.