In “While You Were Sleeping,” Sandra Bullock plays Lucy Eleanor Moderatz.
Lucy is a lonely Chicago transportation worker whose routine changes after she rescues Peter Callaghan from a train-track accident. Peter falls into a coma, and a misunderstanding leads his family to believe that Lucy is his fiancée. Rather than immediately correcting them, Lucy becomes drawn into the warmth of the Callaghan household.
The deception grows more complicated when Lucy develops genuine feelings for Jack Callaghan, Peter’s brother, played by Bill Pullman. The film’s romantic conflict depends on Lucy’s separation between her assumed identity as Peter’s fiancée and her real emotional connection with Jack.
Lucy’s surname, Moderatz, is easy to miss because the film usually calls her simply Lucy. The 1995 romantic comedy was set and filmed in Chicago, including locations associated with the city’s elevated train system. It became one of Sandra Bullock’s defining 1990s roles and earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance.