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Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) More at IMDb Pro »

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20 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
By-the-numbers thriller is boosted by good performances., 8 December 1999

Author: gridoon

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.

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20 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
"Sleeping with the Enemy:" Self-Defense Really Isn't Murder. (Spoilers Ahead), 26 April 2005

Author: Rich Dunbeck from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Self-defense isn't murder" That was the tag line of "Enough", a film that didn't know the difference between self-defense and pre-meditated murder. It would have been a better tag line for "Sleeping With the Enemy", a movie that does know the difference. Whereas Slim plotted and planned her husband's violent death, "Enemy"'s protagonist, Laura, acts in the heat of a moment and, most importantly, her actions are justified.

Laura and Martin have been married for four years, and seem perfectly happy. Unfortunately, Martin's severe Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder and self-confidence issues have put a strain on the marriage. Laura simply can not live up to the standards he needs to keep his OCD under control. If the towels aren't hung correctly on the towel bar, or if the pantry isn't organized just right, he has a fit of uncontrollable anger. When Martin's fits elevate to physical attacks against Laura, she leaves him.

Laura fakes her own death and then begins life anew in a small town with a new identity, and she has a romance with a man named Ben.

Thankfully the movie doesn't try to justify Laura's running away or her adultery, or make her seem perfect; it simply shows the choices she makes. Whether she makes the right choices is all up to your own moral radar, and I like that. If this were "Enough", the case would likely be much different. But this isn't "Enough". This is much, much better.

"Sleeping With the Enemy" is a smart film that actually let's the audience see why Laura feels she has the right to leave Martin. Mostly it has to do with her own inability to deal with Martin's mental infirmities, and that's an understandable problem. OCD can ruin lives, and it can seem overwhelming when you try to help someone who suffers from it. I'm not saying it's right to run away, but her fear is legitimately justifiable. And it's obviously her fear that causes her to overlook the possibility of getting Martin some help.

Her killing Martin is also justifiable. When he bursts into her house with a gun, that provides a reason to kill him. And, what do you know, it makes sense. Do I even have to say the E word again? We all know that movie provides no good reasons for anything that it's characters do. Even though the end of Sleeping With the Enemy is predictable, it's really the only ending the movie can logically come to by that point so I really can't complain, and I'll stay off my soapbox. Besides, I need to save it for when I review "Irreversible."

"Sleeping With the Enemy" has other merits besides the smart script. For one, the cinematography is beautiful, especially in the early scenes at Laura and Martin's beach-front home. I was left saying "Wow." Another selling point is the acting. Julia Roberts, who usually bugs me, does a fine job as Laura. She never takes it into the territory of melodrama or schlock, thankfully. Patrick Bergen, as Martin, does a good job of portraying a sufferer of OCD and, when Laura's ruse is revealed, an enraged husband. He has reason to be angry with Laura for leaving him (or so he believes thanks to his mental issues), plus he has those self-confidence issues that fuel his instability. To some he may seem over-the-top, but to me he seemed very real. Like I said, OCD wrecks those who suffer from it.

My only real problems with the movie were the silly way Martin died (Three bullets, and he's still standing? Please!) and an unnecessary dance number with Laura and Ben. Why is it that some filmmakers deem it necessary to use pointless dance routines to show that two people are in love? And what place do songs like "Runaround Sue" and "Brown-Eyed Girl" have in a movie like this? However distracting those errors may be, "Sleeping with the Enemy" is a fine movie that actually makes the effort to realistically portray real issues. And for that, I commend it.

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Deleted scene?, 8 October 2005

Author: Jumeriah from France

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I just bought the DVD of this film and was surprised to find that a graphic scene was removed from the early moments. I remember from seeing the movie in previous times (on television) that when Laura and Martin come home from the party, he begins his little "love-making" session. We see from Laura's expression that her husband is really raping her. This scene is not on my DVD; it ends right after Laura drops the bowl of strawberries. Why was the scene taken out for the DVD? Perhaps there are enough other clues to Martin's true nature but it is odd that this scene, which is one of the first to clue the audience in to the menace of the situation, is missing. The implications of Martin's favorite music and the Pavlovian horror it instills in Laura is somewhat cheapened by the deletion of the rape scene. I know that there are sometimes different edits of films when they are released on television, but I would have expected this sex scene to be taken out for TV, and not for the DVD!

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Let's answer some of those questions, 13 July 2007

Author: hawk-58 from California

I love this movie! I read the book and have seen it many times. I note that the same questions keep appearing over and over. I think by now I am qualified to answer them, or to at least give my opinions.

**Why does Laura choose to 'flush' her ring down the toilet instead of taking it off while she is in the ocean or pawning it?** Because she is symbolically ridding herself of Martin and their dysfunctional marriage. She is in a hurry to get out of the house and never stops to think that the ring might remain in the toilet bowl. Under the circumstances, would you?

**How did the lady from the YMCA get Martin's work number? And after Martin said he didn't know what she was talking about, why did the lady continue to give Laura's life story?** Martin was a successful Boston businessman. Laura took swim lessons at the Y in Boston for several months and apparently got to know some of the women fairly well. Her name and her husband's name were undoubtedly well known by the time she finished her swim lessons and moved on. It probably only took a look in the Boston phone book to find Martin, as Laura had nothing to hide at the time of the swim lessons (except the bruises, which she explained away) and surely mentioned where he worked, or he had an individual listing. The lady was certain she had the right person when she was talking to Martin, so unfortunately she developed diarrhea of the mouth and provided Martin with too many details.

**Why was the ring still in the toilet when Martin cut his finger months later? Didn't he use the toilet in those months? Or does he have a serious digestive problem?** I am surprised so many people overlooked this: the house at the Cape was the Burneys' weekend/summer home. Martin Burney worked in Boston, and they had a house there where they lived during the week. When his wife "died", Martin immediately closed up the Cape house - hence the coverings on the furniture when he returned months later - and moved to their house in Boston. Guess he didn't have to pee before he left, or he used one of the other bathrooms in the house.

**How did Laura get a house under an alias without a driver's license? What...in Iowa you don't need identification to buy a house or a car? And where did she get the money?** Laura did not BUY a house, she rented it, and for very little, in cash. She apparently bought a used car. As we saw when she returned to the Cape house after faking her death to collect her things and run away, there was a big wad of cash in her travel bag. I don't remember all the details from the book, but obviously she had been saving money all along. She worked part-time at the library in Boston (after her 8:00 a.m. swim lessons, one presumes), so had her own money as well as whatever she could save from the money Martin gave her for groceries, etc. Money talks, in Iowa like anywhere else!

**Just because Laura didn't want to have sex with Ben, Ben asks "Oh my god, what did he do to you?' How the heck does he know that anything happened? What does he have as evidence besides the facts that he called her in a crowd and she didn't respond, and she had a bruise on her head? That's a pretty great assumption to make.** Ben was a perceptive, intelligent guy. He knew right after meeting her that something was seriously wrong in her life and that she was hiding her identity for a reason. He put things together pretty quickly, but figuring out that she was running from an abusive man wasn't exactly rocket science with all the clues she gave out.

**And the thing that really makes me mad. She hears a noise so it must be her husband. Instead of calling the cops or running out of the house...she goes and checks the cabinets to see if all of the cans are neatly arranged. I know that this does happen…but if your husband was in your house, what the heck would make you think that he took the time to arrange your cabinet and he's not just going to kill you?** The man had been terrorizing her for four years. She was paranoid. She wasn't thinking clearly and was doubting her sanity. Call it Suspense Movie Syndrome - just gotta look in that dark room/closet!

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9 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Not Bad, 15 March 2003
Author: Shari (AfricanVenus84@aol.com) from United States

I have this movie on tape also. Come to think, I have a lot of Julia Roberts' movies. Anywho, I liked how she used her timidity to get the hell out of a crazy psyho relationship with a guy who thought he was entitled to beat his wife. She planned everything down to the T, and I liked that. However, you knew he was gonna find her again and wreak havoc on her new life. It grew a little wasteful at that point because the poor guy had only that abusive husband turned psycho side to play with. Not much to chew on really when you're in the movie about 5 times in 20 minutes. You understood she had to see him at least and the point was she had to move on and assert her independence. Sucks that psycho was rich with a nice pad. Plus, why didn't she just pawn the ring instead of attempting to flush hard gold down? Or take it with? Even a toilet isn't that stupid. Maybe she should have eaten it first and it would have been disguised better. I mean, that was the only thing that tipped him off for goodness sakes. She was smart to a point like most chicks in these types of movies. Guess there wouldn't be much of a movie otherwise.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Movie of the Week on the Big Screen, 28 November 2000

Author: acidxian from Haddonfield, IL

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The first few scenes of "Sleeping With The Enemy" suggest that it wants to be a serious film, yet it quickly veers off into b-movie territory, setting up a situation where the only solution to one man's tyranny and obsession is murder. Much like the trashy "Eye for an Eye" starring Sally Field and Kiefer Sutherland, this film seems to exist soley to make us understand how innocent and blameless its heroine is, how unredeemably evil its villain is, and how she is forced to kill him at the conclusion--at which time we have no sympathy for him and she has no remorse. The filmmakers, and possibly the author of the original novel that this was taken from, have given us black and white characters with no complexities. The husband is a violent, selfish boor who bullies the spunky but terrified wife in a number of situations, then goes ballistic when he finds that she has faked her own death to escape him.

Not only this, but the supporting characters are equally one-dimensional and helpless. It seems that nobody who comes up against this man is able to stop him, especially not Laura's frail and elderly mother (who almost gets a pillow-over-the-face smothering for trying to fake the husband out). Not even the instructor that is assaulted in his car outside the university reacts appropriately...after being threatened and knocked unconscious, he apparently fails to file a police report, which would have led the authorities straight to Laura's new boyfriend and possibly resolved the matter without bloodshed.

Not that bloodshed offends me. Go ahead...set the guy up to be blown away. It's the way that the film tries to take the moral high road and unflinchingly gives us a villain who "really deserves it", rather than a more realistic human being with faults and compulsions that would have made his death much more tragic and significant. To me, "Sleeping with the Enemy" is trivializing a serious subject here, and the makers of the film have taken the very real topic of spousal abuse and sensationalized it to a ridiculous degree.

Personally, I was wondering why it took her until the end of the film to kill the guy. After the first kick in the groin, I would have sawed the guy's head off in his sleep.

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9 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
My First Julia Roberts Movie, 16 October 2004
Author: david_barnett1

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.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique will never sound the same again!., 4 March 2008

Author: LieutenantJohnChard from United Kingdom

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.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Haunting, chilling tale of affluent spousal abuse, 16 March 2006

Author: roghache from Canada

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.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Been there before!, 14 May 2007

Author: gcd70 from Melbourne, Australia

"Sleeping With the Enemy" is a predictable, 'been there before' thriller that never seems to find any inspiration no matter how desperately cast and crew try. I can't believe a bunch of my friends talked me into seeing this at the movies some sixteen years ago.

The complete lack of originality from the Ronald Bass screenplay (based upon the Nancy Price novel) does not help, nor does the stale direction of Joseph Ruben or the very average performance from Julia Roberts. The supporting cast including Patrick Bergin and Kevin Anderson do little to help.

There really isn't a lot to say. Just give it a miss.

Sunday, April 14, 1991 - Hoyts Cinema Centre Melbourne

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