User reviews

I think most people tend to overlook how well-done the first 20 minutes of this movie really are. Ruben carefully builds a creepy atmosphere, relying on brief glances, moments of silence and quietly expressive performances (especially by Julia Roberts) to help the viewer understand that, behind the image of a perfect couple, something is really wrong. Unfortunately, after Roberts escapes from her husband, the movie turns into a strictly by-the-numbers thriller, where you can predict almost every development of the script. It's a visually polished movie, though, and the very good performances give it a strong psychological center that keeps it above-average.

I found this movie, if not terribly believable, very moving and emotional when I saw it some years back. Julia Roberts brings a real vulnerability to all her roles, and is perfect here as the affluent but both mentally and physically abused wife.

The sad tale revolves around an apparently perfect upper middle class couple who share a beach home...the beautiful young Laura (who has every material comfort) and her obsessive and abusive husband, Martin. Laura lives in terror of her abuser, finally seizing a chance to escape by faking her own death and and fleeing to another town, where she assumes an entirely new identity. Meanwhile, Martin becomes ballistic when he discovers that his wife is not really dead and goes after her...

I admit it, the plot is pretty far fetched, a lot of holes in the story, some events depicted not very believable. Leave your logic behind. Still, I was able to overlook all this and focus my attention on Laura's plight, hoping she could evade (or eliminate) this intellectual brute, and build a new life for herself with a new love.

The portrayal of Laura's terror is vivid as she tries to appease her obsessive husband, who becomes violent if she fails to keep the pantry shelf items in perfect alignment. The most chilling scene of all is the rape, with its accompaniment of Martin's favorite classical music, a piece which thereafter haunts his young wife. No sympathy here for the husband, whose unfolding actions simply go from unspeakable to unthinkable.

Not a particularly believable plot but engrossing, nevertheless, and a pair of vividly drawn characters who elicit strong emotions. However, the best part of this movie is definitely its message. Contrary to the typical image, spousal abuse is no respecter of social class. It would have been much more difficult for me before this film than it is now to picture an affluent, educated, sophisticated abuser.

Unlike some, I LIKE this lady and this is my favourite film of hers. After watching it for the nth time I was moved to buy the book on which it is based and this is a far more complex affair than the film, which simplifies everything and leaves out several characters altogether. I think Nancy Price did a far better job of studying an abused wife, who never really stopped loving her brute of a husband, than the makers of the film. It depicts Sara/Laura as a far more interesting character than the somewhat insipid Julia Roberts version.

If you have read the book, then some little touches in the film (i.e. - African Violets) become clearer.

Laura marries Martin Burney who appears to be the perfect man, he is handsome and successful, yet the dream of the perfect man becomes a nightmare as Martin is a control freak who abuses her both physically and mentally. Once she decides enough is enough she plots her escape by way of faking her own death by drowning, a new life beckons, but she will always be looking over her shoulder to see if Martin finds out the truth and tracks her down.

Thus the vehicle for Julia Roberts pans out as your just above average thriller. It has some decent moments that keep it from drifting into tedium, the set up perfectly portrays the double life that some people lead, on the social circuit it appears the couple are happy and at one with each other, yet behind their own walls there is violence and the crushing of the spirit. The final third of the film is also well worthy of the word thriller, for the tension is nigh on unbearable as we slowly come to the conclusion, whilst Julia Roberts as Laura does a very tidy job as this sort of modern day princess escaping the evil clutches of her keeper. Must mention the great use of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, it's eerie and impacts hard for the scenes it is used for.

Patrick Bergin plays his role well enough, it's just that his villainy is never fully realised, we see enough to know that what he does is wrong, yet it feels a bit too polished. Whilst a sequence that sees Laura dress up as a man is clearly the low point of the film, it really does stretch the viewers patience, and sadly insults their respective intelligence. It's a mixed bag that isn't quite a waste of time, it just doesn't leave you with anything other than a feeling of being semi fulfilled, shame as it could have been brilliant with a bit more bravery and brains in the script, 6/10.

SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY resembles the kind of movie they show endlessly on the Lifetime channel. The men are either weak and ineffectual or psychotic.It was rightfully parodied by the movie FATAL INSTINCT. For the most part, the cheese factor is high, with plot devices scattered about everywhere, as well as a number of holes mentioned in other reviews. The characters act the way they do because the story requires them to do so. The scenery is wonderful, particularly at the beginning with the boats and the ocean. Patrick Bergin is great as Julia Roberts's obsessive-compulsive creep of a husband. Roberts has more chemistry with him than anyone else in the movie...

Not going to comment much on the plot. Other people have summed it up.

Some of my random thoughts on this film:

Why is the mother so old? When i watched this as a teen, there was always something fishy i could not put my finger on - it didn't sit right. Well, now i know Julia Roberts was cast at 22 years old and her 'mother' in the movie was a 69 year old actress who looked more like a great-grandmother. It was so weird, and still is. I don't think anybody else has commented on this. This is not a criticism of the acting ability - i was just too conflicted to take the mother/daughter scenario seriously - and it was intricate to the plot! A woman of 40-ish could still have been afflicted with blindness or stroke or any number of ailments that required clinical care, so i was baffled by the granny.

The love interest guy wore brown contact lens, when he has natural blue eyes. This made his eyes have no flecks of color, or resemblance to real eyes in human form - i always thought that was a strange thing.

Also, when he first approached her at night - in the garden picking apples - and creeped up on her stating they could arrive at an "arrangement" she should have whopped him in the head! That come-on lacked finesse, to say the least!

And our savvy heroine flushes her wedding ring down the toilet (presumably because she wants no reminders) and looks away without checking to see if it has actually been flushed away! But what? Why? There is a whole OCEAN next door where it could disappear, poetically, into oblivion. But, nah, yeah, the TOILET in their house is good too!

And lastly, when he takes her to school to play dress-up in drama class wardrobe pieces, just so he can get pervy and watch Julia's character undress, and he dances with her... Notice how he literally jolts her arms/body with every move he makes. He is trying to rip off her limbs and cause spiritual pain. The actor literally cannot dance to save a life, and she would have been sore and in pain after a twirl on the dancefloor with that oaf.

As for the husband, his character is sufficiently crazed and commandeering, however the relationship displayed no truth. What was the connection between the husband and wife? Their interactions were contrived. I was not riveted - it left me cold.

One of many standard thrillers that were scattered through the late 80s and early 90s, many of which would star Julia Roberts, and which showed her to be more than just the pretty romantic lead. Here she plays a much stronger character, a woman fleeing her abusive husband to start a new life, strong, independent but still skittish, worried that she might be found.

A tale of beautiful but terrified housewife Laura(Roberts) who resorts to desperate lengths to escape the constant fear of her violent and controlling husband martin (Patrick Bergin) in which she lives – faking her own death to be able to begin a new life far away. However, finding little peace she is still haunted by her previous life, a life which inevitably catches up with her when her husband discovers she is still alive and attempts to track her down.

Roberts can do the strong independent woman role in her sleep and make it appear effortless - a fact proved later with her Oscar win for Erin Brockovich - and in Sleeping with the Enemy she shows the early talent which would eventually lead her to that Oscar win. Meanwhile Bergin is suitably menacing in a rent-a-villain kind of way, all grimacing and intense staring. He does however have a rather interesting tic – a form of OCD- towels all neatly lined up and so on – which could have served as a rather effective tension builder had it been given further development.

However the film itself, while entertaining and diverting enough in its' own right, there is still something very standard and formulaic about the plot. For far too much of the film's (admittedly short) 94-minute runtime we seem to be waiting for the film to get going, and the climax arrives far too late and is too short, wasting the tension which has been built up. In addition, Kevin Anderson as Ben, the white knight who should rescue Laura from her fear, just does not seem to gel with the part – coming off as slightly creepy himself rather than a hero, particularly in the early half of the film.

Overall Sleeping With The Enemy remains a standard typical early 90s thriller of which there were so many, no better or worse than any of the others. A curio for fans of Julia Roberts wishing to see her earlier career development in an effective performance, but the average plot makes the film a throwaway thriller which could serve for a Saturday evening's entertainment with a bottle of wine, but little more. Reasonable, serviceable but forgettable.

Sleeping with the Enemy is a 1991 American romantic psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin and Kevin Anderson. The film is based on Nancy Price's novel of the same name of 1987. Roberts plays a woman who escapes from her abusive husband, from Cape Cod to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she captures the attention of a kindly college drama teacher.

The original escape film and still the best for me. The husband still scares me to this day and I'm 40 now. Probably what put me off men with facial hair for life lol.. julia Roberts is as beautiful ever. I miss this era end 80s early 90s where stars had there iwn smiles and lips lol. You are invested in both ptagonist and antagonist. The ocd of things was creepy. I can't belive she was only 22. Though extremely beautiful the same for margot Robbie in wolf of Wall Street id assumed her to be a gorgeous late 20s early 30s eoman not just entering 20s. I looked so childlike compared to these women at that age. Rewatching this just reminded another reason me exactly why a totally cashless society would be very dangerous for people. Made me miss the times people could easily move around town to town and start again née job clean slate.

What a great movie. One of Julia Robert's best performances.

The start of the movie seems fine Laura and Martin seem like a happily married couple, then you see a scene where Martin berates her about hanging the bathroom towels out of order and then, Laura desperately tries to arrange the tins in the cupboard exactly right. Everything is definitely not alright when you see Martin punch Laura in the head.

This is the story of how Laura fakes her own death and tries to make a new life for herself.

You really feel for Laura and Martin is a really evil guy, who is portrayed very scarily.

The music is beautiful and sad, one of the loveliest soundtracks I have ever heard.

I really recommend this film to other women, although it is not aimed entirely at the female audience, I feel we get more out of it

I went from "Not Without My Daughter" to "Sleeping with the Enemy," that's enough spousal abuse to last me a lifetime.

Laura Burney (Julia Roberts) was trapped in a very abusive relationship. Imagine being married to a person with an OCD about tidiness and he's violent about it---you'd be constantly getting beat. Well, that was Martin (Patrick Bergin). He was this creepy, monotoned, lunatic that demanded perfect obedience and perfect attendance from his wife. She had long had enough, but she had no means of escaping and assuring that she'd be safe.

Finally, she devised a plan to fake her own death which allowed her to escape. It was an excellent plan if her husband was just a normal abusive husband, even with some of her small mistakes. Those small mistakes were pretty much beacons for a overly possessive maniac. No way was he going to let her get away.

"Sleeping with the Enemy" was intense and suspenseful anytime Martin was on the screen. Everything he did, even he smallest of things, was as menacing as a terror plot. You couldn't help but hold your breath and gnash your teeth at the sight of him.

Julia Roberts, for her part, was as professional as always. She dominated the early 90's and this movie was no exception. This may have been an extreme example of spousal abuse, yet how many women never get the chance to escape.

There are a number of good points about this movie- the premise is exciting, Julia Roberts gives a convincing performance as the battered, traumatized heroine, and the film is well-made, with attractive photography and a nice musical score. One thing that makes the story compelling is that it's something that happens in real life, tragically. And Patrick Bergin has some good scenes in a two-dimensional role, portraying the abusive husband as an obsessive-compulsive who is superficially charming. But the truly bad writing keeps it from achieving much. The story becomes both predictable and unbelievable. How was Laura so surprised at her husband's cruelty before marrying him? It's not like she was a mail-order bride. It's never explained how Roberts character was able to hoard that much money before escaping. Shortly after she escapes, she takes the time to cut her hair. Couldn't she have done that later? She goes to great trouble to cover her tracks, up to a point, than throws her wedding ring in the toilet and doesn't bother to check if it gets flushed. It's never explained how she was able to get false identification even though her husband watches her constantly. How on earth was she able to find a place to live so quickly? Most women in her situation live in shelters and low-end boarding houses. Even more amazing, when Bergin visits his wife's legally blind mother, the woman doesn't recognize her son-in-law's voice but recognizes hers instantly. Also, why do she and the nice-guy neighbor fall for each other so quickly? How could such foolish twists have gotten into the story? Because without them, the story wouldn't be able to reach its obvious conclusion. Also, parts are just plain silly. The scene where Roberts tries on a bunch of hats to the tune "Brown Eyed Girl" is obviously filler material. And you'll spot the ending at least 30 minutes before it ends. What a waste of a good idea. It says much for the source material and Julia Roberts that the film works to the degree that it does.

Right off of the runaway success of Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts starred in Sleeping With the Enemy as a battered housewife who fakes her death to escape from her psychotic husband. She changes her name and starts a new life in a small town where everything seems to be better for her...until her husband discovers she's still alive.

Sleeping With the Enemy is fairly by the numbers as thrillers go. It's inoffensive and fairly predictable, but Roberts is incredibly likable in the leading role and director Joseph Rubin knows how to craft suspense which goes a long way in making the film work. Jerry Goldsmith's music score is lush and hauntingly beautiful.

Sleeping With the Enemy is the kind of movie you can relax on the couch with on a Saturday afternoon and it has a great rewatchable quality.

What gives with all the negative reviews of this movie? Sure, it was a product of its time- on the cusp of two decades, but that this psychological thriller blew right past the critics' reviews to be one of the top grossing movies of its time with a female lead speaks volumes. It is a timeless formulaic film with a Hitchcock quality, from the cinematography to the directing to the music. This is one of Julia Robert's most outstanding performances, and there's a reason Jerry Goldsmith's soundtrack won the BMI Film Award for 1992. So the nay-sayers who want to criticize need to remember that the movie knows what it is, and it does it so well, even if that means a film cliche here and there, because that is what the public wants, and it delivers thrillingly, creepily, and beautifully. Credit to the novelist Nancy Price for providing the seductive storyline.

Why did everyone hate this film? It seems that the press love to hate any Julia Roberts film as quick as possible. I have to admit that I find Julia Roberts a fine actress and Sleeping With The Enemy is a fine example of this. She shines in a compelling and powerful thriller, that despite relying on overused shock tactics, builds up an incredible sense of excitement towards the overwrought finale. The opening scenes are shocking and the escape of the abused wife and the discovery of her husband's reappearance are undeniably moving. A forgotten classic

Julia Roberts plays a battered wife who fakes her death in order to escape from her abusive husband and runs away to small town where she tries to make a new life for herself until her husband catches on and comes after her.

If you think too hard about the plot, it all falls apart, but director Joseph Rubin keeps things moving so quickly that you don't really think about it much as you're watching it and it ends up being a good time.

This movie is all about a case of domestic, physical and psychological violence, where the wife of a controlling and violent husband decides to fake his own death in order to escape and start living again. Of course, things get complicated later, when the husband discovers that he was deceived and starts looking for the runaway wife. A classic thriller where she can run but can't hide, which marked (along with "Pretty Woman") Julia Roberts' rise as an actress.

This is, to a large extent, a movie that has aged quite badly, I think. Looking at him today, it is hard not to see him as a rather weak movie, where only the quality of the actress who gives life to the main character stands out. Continuously betting on the emotional response of the audience, the script is tiring and the story told has a series of problems of logic and likelihood. For starters, why did you prefer the character to fake her own death rather than go to the police, tell everything, risk it, and file for divorce? It was, to a large extent, the first thing to do. And that trick with the broken street lamp? If there wasn't such bad weather on this boat trip, how was she going to pretend she drowned convincingly? There's a lot of luck on her escape. And there's a lack of tension and suspense throughout most of the movie, except for the hospital scene, where things get really hot and we're glued to the screen. Even the ending of the movie was too warm and that was disappointing.

Nonetheless, the story is solid enough to withstand the movie and get us to see it all the way through. The construction of the two central characters, played by Julia Roberts (in a performance that showed that she was a safe bet for the industry and a promise of talent), and Patrick Bergin, who can turn his character into something worthy of the game. our hatred, although sometimes quite cartoonish. The worst was really Kevin Anderson, in such a nice stupid character.

In short, this is a highly dated movie that has aged very badly, almost falling into oblivion. The one thing that made this movie not completely forgotten was Roberts' performance, which manages to show a promise of talent and make the movie worthwhile in the least.