The Sleeping Dictionary Reviews

idk all i can remember is the weird squishy sex noises and hugh pissing really loudly

honestly didn’t have high expectations & went in blindly (didn’t watch the trailer ngl) but it was actually really good!

Me gustó. Sé que tiene un montón de problemáticas de representación, de colonialismo en suavizado y de estereotipos hacia los aborígenes, y demás. Pero me gustó y me entretuvo :)

Absolute abomination. But the cast is probably one of the most attractive of its time

I have to admit I went into this with low expectations. Having watched the trailer, I wasn’t hyped about this movie - I’m not going to lie the only reason I watched it was for Hugh. Look, I’m speaking as a Malaysian person (albeit from Sabah, not Sarawak). And I can say that this movie is grossly inaccurate in its portrayal of the ibans. It disgraces the Sarawak community, being exceedingly negative and derogatory in its portrayal and perpetuating harmful stereotypes of a ‘primitive’ people with negative portrayals of the culture. The entire premise of the movie with the ‘Sleeping Dictionary’ is fetishisation and bastardisation of a real traditional courting method. The way they present it as an ‘Asian woman throwing herself at the white coloniser’ is entirely cringe-worthy. I found the writing too rushed which makes the plot feel jumpy. And it doesn’t really make sense. One of the major gripes I have with this movie is that they picked Alba, a white-passing American of Mexican heritage, to play…a native Malay??? Doesn’t suit at all. It’s clear this movie was made for a white audience. It also has a surprising amount of focuses on the sexualisation of Alba. What a shame.

My only positives are the personal ones I have concerning Hugh Dancy: his hair, the accent, literally everything about that perfect man. And him speaking a bit of Malay…never thought I’d hear my country’s language from his mouth but god has it made me a bit feral.

cried 3 times but liked this film all the way

really weird concept but nice to watch beautiful Jessica Alba and Hugh dancy. Otherwise never watch it

Love Hugh Dancy but I would be lying to myself if I said this was a good movie.

A very cute and romantic film I really liked it

Weird ass movie

Hugh dancy 😇