Oscar-winner Charlize Theron may be the “movie star” of the Sleepwalking cast, but make no mistake, the film’s “it” girl is 14-year old AnnaSophia Robb. Robb is in the midst of a Dakota Fanning-esque rise to fame. She followed up her performance as Violet in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with last year’s performances in The Reaping and, one of my favorite films of the year, Bridge to Terabithia.

Having already had a small part in this year’s actioner Jumper, Robb takes on the role in Sleepwalking of Tara, the abandoned daughter of Jolene, a woman whose abusive childhood has led to a self-abusing adulthood. With her boyfriend and meal-ticket placed under arrest for selling pot, Jolene dumps her 12-year-old daughter on her troubled brother James.

Child services quickly comes to take Tara away, but she and James manage to escape and head for the only place James knows to go, the childhood farm still run by his abusive father. It seems like a fun idea at first when they give themselves fake names and turn it into an adventure, but it’s really a trip back to the hell that Jolene helped James escape from years ago.

As the plot goes, there is nothing in Sleepwalking that you won’t find in your typical television movie-of-the-week. Unfortunately, the lackluster plot is not aided at all by the film’s languid and torturous pace. I saw some potential when James and Tara first ran away, but I was quickly reminded that Bonnie and Clyde these two definitely aren’t.

Robb is good, especially in a scene around a motel pool where she tantalizes a couple of prepubescent boys—but not quite up to the potential she showed in Terabithia.

Theron only appears for a short time in this film and her performance is another in what is becoming a trend for the actress of ugly, dumbed-down and trashy characters. It won her an Oscar for Monster and another nomination for North Country. Here she basically plays her version of the mother played by Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone, only in this film it’s she who leaves her daughter.

Speaking of North Country, Sleepwalkers also features Woody Harrelson who co-starred with Theron in that film. I’ve seen him in a couple of 2008 films already and both times his talents have been far underused, but at least this film used him more properly than Semi-Pro.

The only perfect casting in the film was Dennis Hopper as James’ and Jolene’s abusive farmer father. Ironically, given the events of the plot, this good casting actually works against the film.

Sleepwalking is the directing debut for former special effects wrangler William Maher, and his inexperience shows. It takes a while for the audience to realize whose story it is we are watching. At first we suspect it’s Jolene’s, but then the focus seems to shift to Tara before finally settling on James, played by Nick Stahl. Supporting characters like Harrelson’s Randall seem more like distractions than support, and the ending is about as cheesy as you’ll get.

I was intrigued by this film when I first saw the cast listing, but the result only proves that a good film requires more than just talented performers.

Sleepwalking is rated R for “language and a scene of violence.” Really? I was surprised when I saw this rating; “a scene of violence” is really just that, a scene. Not a very disturbing one either. Perhaps the language slipped past me, but I’d think more PG-13.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Sleepwalking.