SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY
A film review by Roger Snappy Rubio
Copyright 1991 Roger Snappy Rubio
Thanks to 20th Century Fox, I had the chance to see SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY before its release. It stars Julia Roberts as a young housewife who is married to a man who both physically and emotionally abuses her. In order to escape, during a small trip out to sail, she fakes her own drowning, and then proceeds to change her entire appearance and identity. She then moves to Iowa, where she becomes involved with another man, who is not totally oblivious to the mysterious manner about her. Her husband eventually gets indications that she is still alive, and proceeds to track her down.
This film is expertly executed, with all the necessary doom-impending camera angles and dim lights, and if one has seen a lot of thrillers, SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY could be considered run-of-the-mill. One recent thriller this film may be compared to is PACIFIC HEIGHTS which, although having a different plot outline, has the same basic thrills. My attempt here is not to belittle this film; in my opinion, in most respects it is better than PACIFIC HEIGHTS (one respect, for example, is the thriller-lover's favorite: how they get rid of the baddie at the end). It is a well-planned and an altogether convincing film that one should not miss if on likes a good thriller. Julia Roberts delivers a admirable performance as the tortured wife of this man she so desperately wants to get away from. Joseph Ruben as a director effectively manages to contribute something if not the same type of thrills over again to the thriller genre, although in my opinion this was not a great contribution.
Don't get me wrong--all in all, as far as thrillers go, this one is good. If there is anyone out there who goes to the movies to latch on to some character to hate, then this movie is definitely for them. It manages to show how the good intentions of some people manages to further the bad intentions of other people. In layman's terms, I would consider this movie to be a popcorn-crunching movies; if you buy a bag before the show, I assure you it will be gone by the end.
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