Sleepwalking (2008)

It's telling that Sleepwalking is distributed by Overture Films, "a Starz company," as one can see it speedily arriving at its afterlife on cable and home video. Despite its best of intentions, this domestic drama of the underclass is thoroughly soggy. Nick Stahl stars as a too-nice construction worker whose sister (Charlize Theron) seems destined to screw up her daughter (up-and-coming child star AnnaSophia Robb). We soon learn that family dysfunction is a vicious cycle following the nightmarish parenting of the siblings' rancher father (Dennis Hopper). There are no fine points to this story: it's simply a terrible family situation in search of a grace note. Screenwriter Zac Stanford and director William Maher find it in the first grudging, then mutual efforts of the girl and her uncle to give each other the love they need.