Sleeping with the Enemy | | Cast : | Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin | | Director : | Joseph Ruben | | Studio : | Fox Home Entertainme | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | February 08, 1991 | | DVD Released Date : | September 02, 2003 | | Language : | French (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 28, 2005 | | Summary | It works ! | Content
 | This movie deals with the sadly timeless theme of domestic violence and manages to be at oner and the same time a classic piece of Hollywood machine tooled movie making and a contemporary fairy story.
Laura -played by Julia Roberts-is married to an outwardly perfect businessman ,Martin Burney ( Patrick Bergin) .Their modern day castle is a luxurious high-tech Cape Cod home complete with all modern convenencies.He is a control freak and she goes along with this to an extent and subsumes herself to his demands ,even down to wearing what he wants her to wear .He is obsessed by neatness and order ,insisting the clothes be arranged in the closet and the towels on the rack exactly as he wishes .Periodically he beats her .It soon becomes cleasr he is a tasteful sadist and the for Laura the house is a luxurious prison cell and her husband an evil tyrant .
She plots her escape ,fakaing her death in an accident at sea and sets up a new life for herself in North Carolina under a new name ,Sara Waters ,and finds a new man in her life.He is Ben Woodward ( Kevin Anderson)a drama teacher aty a local college .
Things begin to go awry when Martin discovers the deception and tracks her down .The vengeful ogre arrives with murderous intent ,and comes over like a cross between Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees ..The stage is set for the violent final showdown and very well staged it is too.
The story constantly teeters on the verge of silliness but firm direction from Joseph Ruben -whose excellent The Stepfather explored similar ground rather more subtly-keeps a firm hand on the reins and ensures the melodrama never becomes hysterical while the pacing of the movie is admirable ,reaching a powerful climax .
Roberts is the movie's greatest asset and she gives a strong performance ,projecting both the vulnerability and likeability of Laura ;Bergin also judges his performance well and is genuinely scary as a man who one minute is warm and solicitous and the next a deranged madman .Anderson is Ok in the underwritten role as the wimpish Ben while there is a good cameo from Elizabeth Laurence as Laura's stroke ridden mother
good edge of the seat material and a slice of slick professional movie making |
| Rating | | | Date | May 16, 2005 | | Summary | "...I've just shot an intruder..." | Content
| A suspenseful film that unlike "fatal attraction", puts the psycho as the male and the victim as the super controlled wife. Julia Roberts is awesome in this movie, it definitley deserves 5 stars and is great for that "hunt of the chase" type feel.
Julia Roberts starred in this thriller about a battered wife stalked by her abusive husband. Roberts plays Laura Burney, the wife of a rich investment counselor, Martin (Patrick Bergin). Martin appreciates his wife as a trophy, but at home he abuses her for not keeping the house as clean as he would like it. The verbal abuse descends into physical violence -so much so that Laura decides to disappear rather than live a life under Martin as a brutalized slave.
Laura fakes her own death by drowning, and relocates to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she changes her name to Sara Waters. She starts a relationship with her friendly Iowa neighbor Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), but her happiness is short-lived. Martin has discovered that Laura has staged her drowning and is coming to Iowa to reclaim his possession. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 06, 2005 | | Summary | This is a fine movie | Content
| I think this movie have good quality . The cast do a good job and suspense works well. Julia Roberts is credible as a mistreated woman and Patrick Bergin don't perform the overacting psycho (thanks for this, Patrick ).At some points get slow but as a whole the movie have good rythm. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 22, 2004 | | Summary | Husband From Hell! | Content
| Julia Roberts plays a battered wife who is reaching her breaking point with her obsessive, controlling , and abusive husband. So she fakes her death during a storm on a sail boat and runs away. She changes her identity and settles down in a small, peaceful town. Trying to forget about her husband and her past, she starts dating her neighbor and begins enjoying her new life of freedom! But little does she know that her psychotic husband is hot on her trail. And is ready to get serious revenge on her. But little does he know that things can always backfire. And a person can only be pushed so far before they give you a taste of your own medacine. Full of action- packed thrills and super suspense! A classic along the lines of "Enough", "Dolores Claiborne" and "Fatal Attraction"! |
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