Sleeping With the Enemy
by Joseph Ruben
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DVD details
Actor: Elizabeth Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Kevin Anderson, Kyle Secor, Patrick BerginDirector: Joseph Ruben
Brand: TCFHE
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-09-02
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Sleeping With the Enemy
DVD Review: Flawed, But Engrossing
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Description of Sleeping With the Enemy
Synopsis:Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: R
Street Date: 12/01/09
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: yes
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.
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