Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)

Crappy film

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Sleeping With The Enemy is one of the best atmospheric thrillers of the early 90's. Anyone who checks it out thinking they'll get a serious, thought provoking look at domestic abuse should think again. It's more of a dark, impressionistic fairytale than anything else, with logic giving way to a nightmarish chase piece. Julia Roberts plays Laura, a naive young bride to Martin (Patrick Bergin), a wealthy advertisement executive who adores her and gives her everything she wants. Unfortunately part of that package involves him kicking the living crap out of her at the drop of a hat. The early scenes have a nerve wracking sense of awaiting disaster, and indeed when things get really bad, Laura escapes by the skin of her teeth, travels by night to a small town in a distant corner of the country, and attempts to start anew. Martin, big bad wolf that he is, pursues her in selfish psychopathic rage, leading to a tense, wicked showdown. This is a misunderstood film. It's not meant as a serious minded piece, but rather an allegory for the way humans prey on one another, relatable to the dark storybooks of our childhood, but manifested in a very adult, mature setting. It's set almost like a horror film, with an ominous score, moody, gaunt locations and an ambiance that sets it just outside reality. Roberts is equal parts resilient and vulnerable as a damsel in distress who ends up rescuing herself, which is as good a character arc as any. Bergin owns, with a towering portrayal of tyrannical, senseless evil. He stalks the film's gorgeous cinematography with a virile madness and relentless sadism that seems one dimensional, until you accept that he isn't meant to be a fleshed out human, but rather an archetype of the bad that human beings are capable of. Crackling thriller.

I love Julia Roberts film she was just starting here film career in this intriguing complex thriller martian burney he likes to control things have every thing in order in his life and his house he was a rich designer house in the Hampton's to everyone he was a very good husband but to laura feels trapped as her marriage is not what it seems she lives in fear because he a dangerous person with anger issues but his wife hatches a plan to get away from him he thinks he has his wife under control but she does things that he doesn't know in order for her to get away so goes on a yacht with her husband a friend but the weather turns and she fakes her death in order to change her life she does but she leaves traces behind unknowingly she moves her life changes he name but her fears come back to haunt her in her new town she meets a new man but her husband finds a trail and is driven but an obsession to make his wife pay for her deceit this is a great thriller making you think at every turn 7/10 film one for Julia Roberts fans

I'm not a fan of Julia Roberts (or Patrick Bergin, for that matter) and watching this film again after some years reminded me why. To be fair, it was still quite early on in Robert's career, and it's obvious that she was still trying to find her place in Hollywood and a foothold as an actor.Sleeping With The Enemy is a very good film, with what has to be one of Bergin's strongest performances. A somewhat underrated actor, he carries much of the film alone. His performance of the abusive, controlling and manipulative husband is very believable. He really does come across as a genuinely evil character. Julia Robert's performance lacks confidence, so consequently she is just dithering along for most of the film, and Kevin Anderson doesn't really deserve a mention. In fact, you could take out Anderson's part/ character and it wouldn't really affect the film.On a whole Sleeping With The Enemy is well worth watching; it's from a time when Hollywood was still trying to come up with something good (on occasion). Yes, there are holes, it's predictable and it may not be all that realistic, but it's very well acted, scripted, shot and even has a great, memorable score.What more could you want?

Martin Burney (Patrick Bergin) is an abusive husband to Laura (Julia Roberts). So she plans to escape by faking her own death. She starts a new life and falls for neighbor Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson).This is a Lifetime movie on steroids. Bergin is a cartoon character. Roberts is showing her movie star credential. And I don't like Anderson. I get the creepy vibes from Let's-do-a-Deal dude. It's the easiest thing to play the nice guy in this movie.This is a movie where flashbacks may be preferable to revealing everything right from the start. The first 15 minutes has Martin hitting Laura, showing Laura escaping, and basically laying out the entire story. There is a lot of possibilities that is lost there. The almost accidental run-in at the hospital is probably the only tense moment after the first 15 minutes. It just lacks tension or suspense.