MovieChat Forums > Sleep with Me (1994) Discussion > Question about the cranky poker-obsessed...

Question about the cranky poker-obsessed guy

posted 14 years ago by the sphynx
3 replies | jump to latest

Is it my imagination, or is it not revealed until the final few seconds (and then only very casually, with a brief visual) that he is wheelchair-bound throughout?

[–] zurichpoet 14 years ago

the sphynx!

I watched this late last night, near dawn, I'm not sure; and I was (am) curious about the same thing!

[–] the sphynx 14 years ago

If we're right, his physical condition goes a long way towards explaining how seriously he takes his games. If it's darn near your whole social life, I daresay you wouldn't want poker night cluttered with silliness and irrelevancies.

I just saw it this morning, around 10-11:30am in NY, apparently about the same time you did. Are you following me around from a 3,500 mile distance, my imdb friend? (sphynx hums a few bars of Twilight Zone theme music)

[–] pete42869 13 years ago

He is indeed a paraplegic, and I've always been fascinated about that fact. Well, the fact that his disability is not addressed, explained or even referenced - other than the visual. I've done quite a bit of research about disability in film and I cannot think of any other example where a character is disabled to such an extent without any explaination or reference to it. This, of course, mirrors life... I mean, some people are disabled, and those people have able-bodied friends. When they are together, the person's disability is not a subject, it just exists. Life goes on. To me, this fact makes the film really good.

This is nothing more than a theory, as I really know nothing about the filmmaker (Rory Kelly), but I noticed that the script was jointly written by six people. Two of those writers' given names are also names of characters in the film (Rory & Duane). Perhaps Leo (the poker fanatical paraplegic) is based on one of the writers.

michael peters