Lucy Eleanor Moderatz is a lonely fare token collector for the Chicago Transit Authority, stationed at the Randolph/Wabash station. She has a secret crush on a handsome commuter named Peter Callaghan, although they are complete strangers. On Christmas Day, she rescues him from the oncoming Chicago "L" train after a group of muggers push him onto the tracks. He falls into a coma, and she accompanies him to the hospital, where a nurse overhears her musing aloud, "I was going to marry him." Misinterpreting her, the nurse tells his family that she is his fiancée. At first, Lucy is too caught up in the panic to explain the truth. She winds up keeping the secret for a number of reasons: she is embarrassed, Peter's grandmother Elsie has a heart condition, and Lucy quickly comes to love being a part of Peter's big, loving family. One night, thinking she is alone while visiting Peter, she confesses about her predicament. Peter's godfather, Saul, overhears the truth and later confronts her, but tells her he will keep her secret, because the accident has brought the family closer. With no family and few friends, Lucy becomes so captivated with the quirky Callaghans and their unconditional love for her that she cannot bring herself to hurt them by revealing that Peter does not even know her. She spends a belated Christmas with them and then meets Peter's younger brother Jack, who is supposed to take over his father's furniture business. He is suspicious of her at first, but he falls in love with her as they spend time together. They develop a close friendship and soon she falls in love with him as well. After New Year's Eve, Peter wakes up. He does not know Lucy, so it is assumed that he must have amnesia. She and Peter spend time together, and Saul persuades Peter to propose to her "again"; she accepts, even though she is in love with Jack. When Jack visits her the day before the wedding, she gives him a chance to change her mind, asking him if he can give her a reason not to marry Peter. He replies that he cannot, leaving her disappointed. On the day of the wedding, just as a priest begins the ceremony, Lucy finally confesses everything and tells the family she loves Jack rather than Peter. At this point, Peter's real fiancée Ashley Bartlett Bacon, who happens to be married herself, arrives and also demands the wedding be stopped. As the family argues, Lucy slips out unnoticed, unsure of her future. Some time later, while Lucy is at work, Jack places an engagement ring in the token tray of her booth. She lets him into the booth, and with the entire Callaghan family watching, he proposes to her. In the last scenes of the film, they kiss at the end of their wedding, then leave on a CTA train for their honeymoon. She narrates that he fulfilled her dream of going to Florence, Italy, and explains that, when Peter asked when she fell in love with Jack, she replied, "it was while you were sleeping."
Both Demi Moore and Julia Roberts were offered the role of Lucy Moderatz but turned it down.
Reception
Box office
The film was a tremendous success, grossing a total of $182,057,016 worldwide against an estimated $17,000,000 budget. It made $9,288,915 on its opening weekend of April 21–23, 1995. It was the thirteenth-highest grosser of 1995 in the United States.
Critical reception
While You Were Sleeping received positive reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 80% fresh approval rating based on 59 reviews, and an average rating of 6.44/10. The site's critical consensus reads, " While You Were Sleeping is built wholly from familiar ingredients, but assembled with such skill -- and with such a charming performance from Sandra Bullock -- that it gives formula a good name." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 67 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Bullock also garnered a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in 2002 with a nomination for the list AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions.
