Sleeping With the Enemy

Starring:Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin, Kevin Anderson, Elizabeth Lawrence, Kyle Secor, Claudette Nevins, Tony Abatemarco, Marita Geraghty, Harley Venton, Nancy Fish, Sandi Shackelford, Bonnie Johnson, Graham Harrington, John Ward, Sharon J. Robinson, John Lindley, Patt Noday, Ron Reedy
Director: Joseph Ruben
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

This 1991 thriller by Joseph Ruben (True Believer) works up to a point: Julia Roberts plays an abused wife who fakes her death and starts anew under a different identity in Iowa. Her psychopathic husband (Patrick Bergin) figures it out and stalks her and her new boyfriend (Kevin Anderson). The best part of the film is the moody isolation of Roberts's life with Bergin. Ruben ingeniously stakes out the story by presenting what looks like an ideal life between the two--a nice house on the ocean, a seemingly healthy sex life, etc.--and then, whammo! Vital to the plot but less interesting is everything afterward, but that's less an inherent script problem than it is obvious studio pressure to push Roberts as a cute star. There's even a sequence where the actress tries on a series of hats while Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" plays on the soundtrack. Such insistent valentines to Roberts destroys most of Ruben's momentum and the film's credibility, and the project never quite recovers. --Tom Keogh

Description

Julia Roberts tries to escape an abusive husband by faking her death. But eventually her past catches up with her in this suspenseful and scary drama.

Customer Reviews:

Great Movie!.......2007-06-17

I'm not one for a slasher movie, I love suspense and this movie is full of it. Julia Robert's is great in this movie and it also has a beautiful original score. I would recommend this movie to everyone.

Unforgettable!.......2006-12-16

This is a great thriller movie and is very suspensfull also. I seen this movie for the first time several years ago and I have never forgotten it, it is a movie that stays with you and you won't forget. I now own the movie and love watching it, never gets boring. Best of all I love a happy ending!

Very disturbing because it is realistic. Take away message this is more than a thriller. It is making a statement........2006-10-17

When I went to this movie I thought it was a spy movie. Nope it is not what a shock. It is about domestic violence. Many people I have spoken with think this is a very good movie. I think they like it more for the syspense factor from what I can tell. Perhaps someone can gain some compassion from this movie because it feels this way to be in an abusive relationship. They really did their research or someone knew something when directing and writing the screenplay. I know nothing about the book and am not focusing about the socioeconic status of the woman of the book vs the movie like the previous reviewer. Unless you are comparing and constrasing the 2 for a term paper forget about that. I do not think that is really important to the story as domestic violence can occur in all economic levels. When you see stress of the wife trying not to upset her husband with stupid little things like arranging the cans of food in a cabnet. This is what some abusers are really like. Anything and Nothing will set off an abuser like that. The Victim gets punished for these things as an excuse for him to get out his anger or control just like the movie. This really lets you know what it is like to be in an abusive relationship from the inside. If you let yourself you can get into the character just as a movie like (A Beautiful Mind) you can get inside a character. They are totally different movies, but they have a similar delivery style. This is a very disturbing movie and I would not recomend it for young people unless it is in the context of teaching about domestic violence or perhaps preventing it. Next to being in an abusive relationship this is the closest you can get unless they make another movie. This would be a good movie for someone counselling domestic violence victums or anyone going into the psychology field. If you are a student of one of those diciplines you might want to watch this to desinsitize yourself to what people may tell you and to familiarize yourself with abuse.
If not this is another syspense movie that is really well done and some people find it entertaining. I think it is more educational, but the delivery is entertaining to some people. I think it is just that some people seem to crave violent movies of all types and do not think about the message even when someone goes to the trouble to have a real plot and storyline.
I hope that helps.

Flawed, But Engrossing.......2006-09-11

Although primarily a showcase for Julia Roberts, who had become Hollywood's latest "IT" girl after "Pretty Woman", this romantic thriller, based on Nancy Price's novel, is watchable and quite suspenseful. It cannot be denied that the book is far superior, as is the case with most film adaptations based on a best-selling novel. The film is obviously aimed at women and the "yuppie" attitude that was still prevalent in the early 1990s. In the book, the abusive husband and wife were middle-class, while in the film Martin Burney (Patrick Bergin) is a wealthy businessman, who places his beautiful wife on a shelf like a trophy, expecting perfection and exploding when she doesn't meet his qualifications. While many may argue the change in their financial status in the movie, it does show that domestic violence can happen at every economic level, in all different walks of life and societies. We are only subjected to one instance where Laura (Roberts) is beaten by her spouse, although his control over her, demands and insensitivity to her feelings has been hinted at, and she does indicate that it was definitely not the first time. The novel goes into far more graphic detail of his offenses. Sara (the names that Roberts assumes are reversed in the book) wears a wig constantly after she escapes to Iowa, while the movie only has Laura wearing a wig as she escapes, and then she has her hair trimmed a little shorter and gets a perm. Not a very effective disguise if you're trying to alter your physical appearance so the bad guy won't recognize you! When she tosses her wedding ring in the toilet and tries unsuccessfully to flush it down the drain, Martin finds it after he tears through Laura's personal belongings and cuts himself, he discovers it with no problem - did he not use the toilet in the weeks since Laura's "death"? Faking her demise, since her husband believes that she could not swim (she secretly took lessons at the YWCA, who inadvertently tips psycho hubby off - how did they find him?), she finds an ideal guy, Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), the local college drama professor, who embodies the sensitive, artistic dreamboat with such naturalness that you cannot help but like him. He gets her to open up (at least as far as she is capable of doing) and he senses that she is very traumatized, and is there for her when she most needs him. Anderson has rarely been seen since and I wonder what became of him - he certainly had the talent (anyone who can even partially pull off the opening number from "West Side Story" with a garden hose in tow and make it look easy must have something special), and the sequences featuring Van Morrison's Brown-Eyed Girl, and the vintage 60s tune Runaround Sue is actually quite engaging, a break from the intensity of the plot and showing some light-hearted, romantic fun.

Bergin is effective if somewhat hammy in some parts - his character, no doubt, had some kind of undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder, but at times he's a little too wild-eyed, but he does have the charm masking brutality bit down quite good, as many violent offenders are skilled at presenting as a front (how can such a charming, wealthy man be such a monster in private?). Bergin, a latecomer to acting (he was a teacher for children with learning disabilities in his native Ireland), has played many villainous roles, although here it was obvious that the filmmakers were trying to get him to resemble a certain dictator (guess who!). And the fact that he seems to be able to slip in and out of her home (and rearrange her towels and condiments) without her knowing is definitely stretching it, something that Robert De Niro's character in the 1991 remake of "Cape Fear" also seemed to excel at, and Martin seems to have it too easy when tracking down his frail mother-in-law in the nursing home that Laura secretly placed her in after lying to Martin about her mother's fictional passing.

Laura is a terrified woman driven to desperation, who wants to start a new life but she is still living in fear of the man she married, who she fears (and rightly so) will stop at nothing to find her if he discovers that she has escaped him. It's nauseating when he calls her his "princess", which again, seems to indicate that she is more of a possession to him, and I wasn't particularly interested in seeing Martin's backside after he ravishes her to Berlioz's "Symphonie Le Fantasique". The cinematography is breathtaking.

The final showdown, terrifying and voyeuristic (the viewer, of course, is aware of the danger lurking in the shadows far before Laura and Ben are), and it's last resort for this young woman who found that the law could not protect her. Of course, the brief, the bad guy comes back from death momentarily part is ridiculous and clichéd, but when Laura embraces the injured Ben and the camera pulls back, showing the dead Martin, eyes open, his blood streaked hand, with Laura's gold wedding band just a few inches way, sparkling, is very compelling. The music, by Jerry Goldsmith is great, conveying sadness, terror and romance in equal amounts.

Read the book, watch the film, and draw your own conclusions.

Enjoyable fun 90's thriller.......2006-06-06

I enjoyed this film from the great acting from a young Julia Roberts. The film is early 90's so it's not the greatest but it's very entertaing. the film is very suspensfull and the acting is good. The plot is original and has you on the edge of your seat.

Average customer rating:

Sleeping With the Enemy / Dying Young
Starring: Julia Roberts , Patrick Bergin , Kevin Anderson , Elizabeth Lawrence , and Kyle Secor
Director: Joseph Ruben , and Joel Schumacher
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000KGGIZA
Release Date: 2006-12-05

Amazon.com

Sleeping With the Enemy: This 1991 thriller by Joseph Ruben (True Believer) works up to a point: Julia Roberts plays an abused wife who fakes her death and starts anew under a different identity in Iowa. Her psychopathic husband (Patrick Bergin) figures it out and stalks her and her new boyfriend (Kevin Anderson). The best part of the film is the moody isolation of Roberts's life with Bergin. Ruben ingeniously stakes out the story by presenting what looks like an ideal life between the two--a nice house on the ocean, a seemingly healthy sex life, etc.--and then, whammo! Vital to the plot but less interesting is everything afterward, but that's less an inherent script problem than it is obvious studio pressure to push Roberts as a cute star. There's even a sequence where the actress tries on a series of hats while Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" plays on the soundtrack. Such insistent valentines to Roberts destroys most of Ruben's momentum and the film's credibility, and the project never quite recovers. --Tom Keogh

Dying Young: With little money, a poor education and no luck when it comes to love, Hilary O'Neil (Roberts) answers a want ad and finds her whole world suddenly changed. Hired as the caretaker to a seriously ill young man (Scott), she unexpectedly discovers they have much in common, even though he is wealthy and intelligent. Their growing friendship quietly develops into a deep and powerful romance that ultimately tests the boundaries of true love.

Average customer rating:

Great Movie!
Unforgettable!
Very disturbing because it is realistic. Take away message this is more than a thriller. It is making a statement.
Flawed, But Engrossing
Enjoyable fun 90's thriller

Sleeping with the Enemy [Region 2]
Starring: Julia Roberts , Patrick Bergin , Kevin Anderson , Elizabeth Lawrence , and Kyle Secor
Director: Joseph Ruben
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video