Corvette I like most people first saw this movie years ago during a completely different time. Now, re visiting it many years later through more mature worldly eyes, it clearly makes all the flaws so visible now. The most glaring error would be the fact she went out for an evening sail with two men (one her husband) and fails to return home? it would seem that one or both of them might be considered a person of interest? but no, its all wrapped up with a beach side memorial - no body recovered and an untouched house that was clearly not part of any investigation? Secondly I would assume after mustering up the courage to leave an abusive relationship the LAST thing on her mind would be sparking up a romantic interest before she had all her "starting a new life ducks in a row"? yet she falls right away for an inquisitive young man full of questions about her. As the movie progresses we witness the husband gradually get more and more agitated as he realizes she may still be alive! yet when he first lays eyes on her in the arms of another man, he has the restraint to not say anything and head back to her house to start playing mind games. OH and back to my first point, would it have not been more sensible to have the getaway bag of clothes outside the house? that way she wouldn't have covered the floor with wet sand and salt water foot steps! but I guess it doesn't matter because other than a quick wiping of floor in one area they left that messy part out.

NateWatchesCoolMovies 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.

lisafordeay 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.

Steve Pulaski Sleeping With the Enemy feels nothing so much as a Lifetime drama/thriller that was lucky enough to scoop up mainstream distribution into American cinemas. It's a perfunctory, often middling cross between the two genres, as it starts out giving us an interesting setup with characters and a dysfunctional relationship, before abandoning that to predicate upon a cat-and-mouse game between the couple. If it hadn't been for the interesting amount of tension director Joseph Ruben cooks up during this ninety-eight minute exercise, this review would be comprised of battle-words.The film's selling point is obviously Julia Roberts, who does what the script allows her to do efficiently. She plays Laura Burney, a relatively middle-aged woman living off the coast of Cape Cod with her husband Martin (Patrick Bergin) in a seemingly competent life-position. They talk a lot, they appear to be trusting, and they enjoy having sex in the dining room to Symphony Fantastique. Not long after their fling do we see why their relationship isn't so great; Martin, who suffers from a personality disorder, often abuses Laura if she does not perform tasks to his personal liking or if he assumes that she is being unfaithful. This causes a desperate strain on not only their relationship, but Laura's well-being. When the neighbor offers to take them sailing in a wild thunderstorm, Laura decides to fake her own death at sea and swim to a nearby shore. On the shore, she can begin a new life, under the name "Sara Waters," and leave the calamity behind her."Sara" soon meets a drama professor named Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), who tries to become close with her, but coming off a disastrous marriage, she wants nothing to do with men anymore. The remainder of the film showcases Ben's efforts to get closer to "Sara," and how Martin begins to pick up leads to her whereabouts where he can finally make her his own again.This kind of potboiler setup doesn't leave too much to be desired. The film has a very "scenic" attitude, meaning that much of the film is comprised of listless montages, pretty, yes, but substantial and worthy of inclusion, no. This makes the film inhabit a dreary state, where the characters are not that interesting to stay in-tune with, the plot is nothing but a simple kickstarter to get things going, and the relationships between characters are wholly unmemorable.Yet the most astonishing thing of all, setting aside the scenic atmosphere, the uninteresting characters, the tepid plot progression, and the redundancy of it all is the hammy acting by almost everyone involved. Even Roberts, who is often quaint and sophisticated in her roles. She recites her dialog with a wooden state of mind, seemingly reading it off a cue-card, making much of her delivery awkward and unpolished. Anderson and Bergin don't bring too much else to the table, other than the males in her life that are causing her untold grief.There is, however, a similarity to a newer movie that Sleeping With the Enemy brings to the table, and that film is Safe Haven, the latest adaptation in the line of Nicolas Sparks romance novels. Both of these films, while capitalizing off the same-type of premise, choose to go about their stories in different ways. Sleeping With the Enemy tries to craft a thriller out of the entire thing, providing a more nuanced relationship subplot in the background, while Safe Haven heavily emphasizes the romance value and only seeks out the thriller aspect towards the end of the film. Regardless, these are two examples of films with a promising premise that both provide hokey, unremarkable products in whatever direction they take. Despite this, both films provide competent direction and accentuate a usually difficult detail to capture well (Safe Haven being scenery, and this film being suspense). It's just too bad the surrounding elements in the same picture couldn't have buoyed it.Starring: Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin, and Kevin Anderson. Directed by: Joseph Ruben.