It is said that somewhere in the hills surrounding Los Angeles, you can still hear the pounding heart of the studio exec that first heard the pitch for SLEEPERS. Four boys land in juvenile hall. Two of them grow up to murder the guard who beat and raped them throughout the term of their sentence. The other two -- one a District attorney, the other an aspiring reporter -- conspire to get their friends off the hook. The DA takes the case intending to lose; the reporter convinces a Catholic priest from the old neighborhood to lie on the stand in the boys defense. It's got corruption, violence, revenge and crushing dramatic potential. AND -- here's the best part -- it's _all_ true!

It is said that the ground beneath Hollywood still trembles from the studio executives quaking with joy as the package of talent came together. Brad Pitt as the DA, Michael Sullivan; Robert DeNiro as the priest, Father Bobby; Kevin Bacon as the head guard, Sean Nokes; Dustin Hoffman as the defense attorney, Danny Snyder. And, helming the project as screenwriter, producer and director, Barry Levinson whose hits include DISCLOSURE, BUGSY, RAIN MAN, THE NATURAL and DINER.

With all of this how could SLEEPERS miss?

<sigh>

Look, I liked SLEEPERS. I really did. The performances were sharp and believable; the script, clear and flowing. The story was compelling and the direction intriguing. SLEEPERS packs a punch. So why was I able to take it on the chin without even flinching?

You might think it was because I heard that the "true story" behind SLEEPERS was a fabrication. Well, I had heard such things and I decided not to care. Unfortunately, the movie _does_ care. It relies on the reality of the story to add impact to a film that otherwise offers few surprises. Given the tone of impending doom, you know the boys will meet cruel fate, will be abused during incarceration, will have their revenge in its fullest. The guard will die, the priest will lie, the boys will walk. Maybe it would have been nice if some parts of the DA's master plan for saving his friends and icing Nokes's cohorts ran into trouble. But it never did. Maybe the priest could have brought a different agenda to the witness stand than the one everyone expected. But he didn't. Nothing -- good or bad -- is ever in *real* doubt.

The inexorability of the story reminded me of Alexandre Dumas's novel, "The Count of Monte Cristo," which is referred to frequently during the movie. I liked the book and there was a certain satisfaction in the tale of the Count's revenge. But the revenge felt too cold, methodical, thorough and detached for me to connect to the Count and love the story. Much like SLEEPERS.

SLEEPERS comes across as rather high on itself. I had this impression from the opening credits -- literally. The titles appeared in white letters on a black background, hard-cutting to snippets of live action. Strident music coursed beneath. Not an unusual way to start a movie. But each name appeared on the screen for a long time, and just about every name in the opening credits got the full screen treatment. It had to be the longest, darkest series of credits I'd ever seen. The self-important feel of the movie was reinforced throughout by narration that tried to make ordinary, believable events seem incredible and epic.

A score by John Williams is also another indication that a movie thinks itself bigger than the A-bomb. Fortunately, I found that Williams' music matched the drama in all but a few scenes. Unfortunately, his music ruins a scene that could have been an emotional knockout.

OK, OK. Enough kvetching. By now you probably think I hated the movie. I didn't. Let me tell you about what's good.

Top of the list: Robert DeNiro. He's perfect as Father Bobby, who the neighborhood mob boss says "would have made a good hit man. Too bad the other side got him." Every word and gesture is totally natural. I wouldn't be surprised to find him serving Mass at a Manhattan parish. (It would scare me silly, but I wouldn't be surprised.) I wish he had more screen time.

Next up: Dustin Hoffman. He plays Danny Snyder, the loser lawyer who's set up to win an impossible case. He's hilarious and understated, a perfect balance to serious, fiery Michael Sullivan. Over the summer I realized that lawyers often are not very good actors and if actors want to portray lawyers more accurately, they'd have to be less convincing. Hoffman does just this, tossing out charisma and even coherence to deliver a realistic portrayal. (Again, I was left wishing for more.)

As for the rest of the cast: Kevin Bacon rocked. In MURDER IN THE FIRST, he played an abused prisoner. Now he's on the other end of the nightstick -- a force of inescapable, conscienceless evil. I liked Jason Patric as the grown-up Lorenzo (a.k.a. Shakes) who narrates the film. And Brad Pitt played a good Count of Monte Cristo, cloaked in a DA's suit. The kids were pretty good, too. Among them was Brad Renfro who played the title character in THE CLIENT. They seemed like real kids rather than actors. But what made the movie for me were the supporting characters in the old neighborhood -- King Benny, Fat Mancho, Lorenzo's mother and father, Father Bobby... whoops! There I go back to the top of the list.

Despite the self-important feel of the movie, I liked a lot of Barry Levinson's direction. The movie begins in daytime of summer, it ends in the night of winter. Along the way, you feel the uneasy slide toward twilight as the boys' lives dim. Levinson also employed a layering technique to compress time, which I found intriguing. For example, you hear the testimony of a witness while he's approaching the stand. It's almost as if the future is the past to the present moment. Hm. Maybe that's one of the reasons the plot felt so ineluctable. Hm. Could one of the things I liked about the film have added to something I disliked about the film?

I better not try to get into that. Obviously, I liked SLEEPERS. I didn't love it, but you might and there's simply no way I can tell anyone not to see this movie.

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