Ross Malinger's strength is making a precocious child sound serious about what he wants. We rate the feeling he brings to Sleepless in Seattle, even when the matchmaking becomes a little too convenient.
Fi1m perspective
In Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Jonah Baldwin wants to find his widowed father a wife, and Ross Malinger treats the task with a child's seriousness. The matchmaking matters to him, which gives us a reason to indulge it. Malinger's strength is that emotional urgency: the boy can be precocious without seeming immune to disappointment. We like what he brings to the film, though its reliance on coincidence puts more pressure on the actors than it should.
That part was his breakthrough, following his film debut as Harvey in Kindergarten Cop (1990). His subsequent work included the sitcoms Good Advice (1993–1994) and Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher (1996–1997), and the action thriller Sudden Death (1995), opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme. These were different settings for a career repeatedly built around bright young boys and sons. The familiar risk with those parts is a child who exists only to prompt a grown-up into action, with little feeling of his own.
With Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle, Malinger makes the son's feelings count. We were moved by the seriousness he gives Jonah's concern for his father; his wish to arrange a romance has a need behind it. The ease between the two actors makes that concern convincing, and gives Nora Ephron's comedy something to depend on when the coincidences become harder to accept. Hanks and Meg Ryan do much of the work of earning the sentiment, but Malinger's intensity is useful company. Ephron gets something worthwhile from that urgency, even when the boy's matchmaking gives the plot too much help.
Voice work offered another use for his comic timing: he was the original TJ Detweiler in the first season of Recess (1997). His final acting credit came in Without a Trace (2006), leaving these child performances to stand without a later adult reinvention. Start with Sleepless in Seattle, with a little patience for the coincidences.
Biography
Ross Malinger is an American former actor. He was born on 7 July 1984 in Redwood City, California, and began his career as a child performer in 1990.
He is best known for playing Jonah Baldwin in the film Sleepless in Seattle (1993). Other credits include Harvey in Kindergarten Cop (1990), the voice of T.J. Detweiler in the animated series Recess (1997–1998), Adam Lippman in an episode of Seinfeld, Tyler McCord in Sudden Death (1995), and Tyler Hale in the series Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher (1996–1997). Malinger appeared in over twenty television and film roles before retiring from acting around 2006; he later worked as an automobile salesperson.
