Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)

Man, some of the reviews here!First off, some of the questions raised were the exact same things mentioned in Roger Ebert's review (so much for originality!). And they were answered pretty reasonably by reviewer hawk-58.Second, since when do we expect a movie to hold our hands and provide all the answers to questions that may come up? Sometimes you have to fill in the blanks yourself. Plot holes? Hey, these are movies, not real life. If plot holes make you mad then it might be time to consider not watching movies anymore!Third, since when do we expect characters to never make mistakes? The story was unrealistic because Laura made a few errors. Newsflash! People mess up all the time in real life. If they didn't, criminals would never be caught by the police. And frankly, I don't think she messed up as much as some of the reviews imply...again, it's human nature to make some miscalculations and not take certain things into account.This is certainly not a terrible film, but not a great one either. It's about average, so 6/10 seems right. It's entertaining enough if you have a couple of hours to kill and enjoy the genre, and if your expectations aren't unreasonable.

Sleeping With The Enemy is a 1991 thriller about a young woman played by Julia Roberts,who fakes her own death and runs away from her abusing controlling husband Martin played by Irish Actor Patrick Bergin (who played Anne Hathaway's father in Ella Enchanted)who at first seems to be the perfect husband until he changes into a wife beater from hell who is so obsessive with his wife and very dangerous. Now with a new identity Laura is now known as Sarah Waters and she lives in Iowa a place that is near her blind mother who is apparently in a nursing home. Problems arise however when "Sarah" falls for her next door neighbor who she later confesses about her controlling husband.But since she is enjoying her new life as Sarah Waters will her controlling wife beating husband find her and threaten her again? and can Laura finally get rid of her husband once and for all.Bottom line I've been a fan of Julia Roberts ever since Pretty Woman and The Runaway Bride and frankly she did a good job as the victim of domestic abuse,while Bergin was excellent as the wife beater from hell with his crazy expressions and his weird plans.Similar to the 2013 film Safe Haven its sorta different to that cause in Safe Haven you got a woman like Roberts on the run,falls for a guy who in Safe Haven is a widowed father and his wife died years ago,also in Safe Haven there's this woman who helps the girl who is the victim of domestic abuse and in Sleeping With The Enemy there is none of that. But yeah Sleeping With The Enemy is a real suspense thriller and if your a fan of Roberts than check it out.Overall its an 8 out of 10.

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.

In all honesty, this movie struck me as a bit flat, both in terms of plot and performances. To begin with, I'm not the biggest fan of Julia Roberts in the first place. I've had some mixed reactions to her work. She's been in a couple of good films, but much that I've seen has disappointed me. "Sleeping With The Enemy" has to rank in that "disappointing" category.It's cliché driven from beginning to end, and it hits every note possible in the story of an abused woman. Roberts character of Laura Burney qualifies on that count, married to a violent OCD-driven husband (played by Patrick Bergin) who controls every aspect of her life and makes her live in fear. Faking her own death, Laura escapes his clutches, moves to a small town in Iowa under an assumed name and, of course, falls in love with a nice guy (Kevin Anderson) - except that you know hubby has to be planning to show up. I'll grant that Roberts was the best part of a cast that really didn't inspire me very much.The movie is at times a bit slow paced, but in the last twenty minutes or so it does have all the required chills for this kind of movie, and there's some suspense about how it's all going to turn out. Still, for the most part it was a rather uninspired effort which left a lot to be desired. (5/10)