Bullock gives Lucy just the right amount of edge. Pullman's performance as Peter's down-to-earth younger brother is also a deft mix of moxie and frustration.

[Bullock] knows one of the secrets of doing romantic comedy: treating the romance as a good joke.

Compared to While You Were Sleeping, even the half-baked scenario of the Marisa Tomei-Robert Downey Jr. romance Only You looks witty and inventive.

Despite its flaws, While You Were Sleeping endures as a rom-com that thrives on its casting and its Chicago setting, even if it asks viewers to accept some significant leaps in logic along the way.