Sleeping with the Enemy

Plot synopsis:
Laura Burney (Julia Roberts) lives in a beautiful home by the beach on Cape Cod with her husband, Martin (Patrick Bergin), a charming, handsome and wealthy investment counselor. Beneath his charm, however, Martin is an angry, possessive control freak who has been physically and emotionally abusing Laura throughout their marriage. One day, Martin believes Laura has been flirting with an attractive neighbor, and he physically assaults her in a jealous rage. In an effort to escape Martin, Laura fakes her own death at sea in a storm while the couple are boating. Because Laura had deliberately led Martin to believe that she could not swim, he believed she had died once she was lost overboard. However, Laura was able to swim safely to shore, because she had recently taken swimming lessons at the YWCA. Laura secretly returns home, retrieves some clothing and cash she had hidden away in preparation, disguises herself, and leaves home after "flushing" her wedding ring down the toilet.
Laura moves to Cedar Falls, Iowa. In preparation, she has told Martin that her mother, Chloe Williams (Elizabeth Lawrence), died, and pretends to attend the funeral, but secretly moves her to a nursing home in Iowa. She rents a modest house and adopts the name Sara Waters. In Cedar Falls, she meets Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), who teaches drama at University of Northern Iowa. A relationship develops, but suffers a setback when Ben discovers that her real name is not Sara. After a date, Laura is unable to be physically intimate with Ben, and the next day, she confesses that she is on the run from her abusive husband.
Meanwhile, Martin receives a chance phone call from a friend of Laura's from the YWCA and learns of Laura's swimming lessons. His suspicions aroused, Martin heads home and finds Laura's wedding ring in the toilet bowl where it failed to flush. From the Cape Cod nursing home, he learns that Laura's mother is alive, and has her traced to the nursing home in Iowa. He visits Laura's mother and tells her he is a police officer needing information about Laura. He learns from her that Laura is seeing a college drama teacher in Cedar Falls.
Martin finds Laura and Ben at a local fair, then follows her home. After leaving idiosyncratic clues of his presence around the house for Laura to find, Martin confronts Laura. Ben appears at the front door and Martin, brandishing a gun, threatens to kill Ben if she doesn't make him leave. Laura talks to Ben and he appears to leave, but then he breaks down the door and struggles with Martin, who knocks him unconscious. As Martin points the gun at Ben, Laura distracts Martin then attacks him. He drops the gun and Laura manages to take control of it; she fires at Martin but misses.
Laura holds Martin at gunpoint while she calls the police. She tells the police that she just killed an intruder, hangs up the phone and shoots Martin three times.
When Martin falls to the ground, she drops the pistol and collapses, sobbing. Martin, not yet dead, picks up the gun and attempts to shoot her, but the gun only clicks empty and he dies. Ben is revived by Laura. They embrace as Martin's dead body lies on the ground with Laura's wedding ring inches from his hand.

Tags: revenge, neo noir

Review:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Martin Burney (Patrick Bergin) is an abusive husband to Laura (Julia Roberts).
Fresh from her success in Steel Magnolias, Pretty Woman and Flatliners Julia Roberts takes the lead role in "Sleeping With The Enemy"Sleeping with the enemy is a good title, because if the is movie is the enemy, then sleeping is what most viewers will end up doing.
It is essentially a slasher movie in disguise, complete with jumpy soundtrack and a plot that is full of countless holes.Of the cast, Roberts looks good, but that is it, Patrick Bergman seems to be doing a Burt Reynolds impression when nobody (and I mean nobody) not even Burt Reynolds wanted to be Burt Reynolds.
His later eye-bugging hysteria totally diffuses any of the character's sinister shadings from earlier in the film...at least before he started shouting LAURA LAURA LAURA like a comedian parodying Brando in "Streetcar." I never found Kevin Anderson to be a convincing actor, period, and he's no better with the Miami Vice greaseball look thrown over him.On the other hand, Julia Roberts gives an arguably good performance; it's muted and nicely restrained most of the time (save for the "Pretty Woman"-type montage in the middle...you can almost hear the Fox execs ordering up Bass' team to recycle something that will retain fans of the 1989 drooler).Don't get me wrong.
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.
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.
And the manner in which Martin "discovers" his supposedly dead wife is totally artificial and laughable.Btw, I think Robert Bergin - with his very, very decent looks - is NOT the right actor for this negative role.
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 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.
Laura (Roberts) finally decides she has had enough, and escapes by taking swimming lessons, faking a drowning to escape the abusive husband.Eventually she travels to Iowa, remakes her life, and even meets a new man.
While the story ends a bit predictably, the beginning of the film is very telling and detail-oriented, showing Bergin's systematic breakdown of Laura's self-esteem, her isolation from society and loss of self-confidence; and then her final realization of what she must do.
She meets nice guy Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson) and begins to fall in love...but her husband (in an increasingly unbelievable series of events) figures out she's alive and is hunting her.This movie was just made to cash in on Roberts' "Pretty Woman" which was a monster hit the year before.
Julia Roberts obviously makes a concerted effort to shake off her cotton wool Pretty Woman persona with this spurious spousal abuse thriller, but it's hard to imagine she'd end up putting in a performance as powerful and convincing (and oscar winning) as she did in Erin Brokovich based on the back of this rubbish.
And make no bones about it, it's nothing more than a Julia Roberts vehicle, but unfortunately, her performance is not the most lacklustre thing about it.The plot has all the markings of a late night made-for-cable, and don't be under the impression that it will offer any insight into the dark world of domestic abuse because non of the characters are sketched out enough for you to really care.
While Price did a marvelous job in trying to bring out the fears of an abused wife, Ruben simply takes the shine off the story and turns it into a trashy piece of a cheesy thriller.The three lead characters of Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin and Kevin Anderson is what makes this film simply intolerable to watch.
It's the portrayal of the abusive husband played by Patrick Bergin (whom I've never heard of before) that makes this film a cheap thriller which is remotely scary.
Sleeping with the Enemy is a mediocre movie with a promising storyline that simply didn't end up being as good as it could have been and a good cast.I really don't think this movie should have been considered a thriller because there are altogether about five minutes of scenes that are genuinely thrilling,which is another 85 minutes of little excitement.While I did think the love story between Julia Roberts and Kevin Anderson was nice to watch and the actors had good chemistry,I really wasn't expecting,nor was I happy to see,that a very large portion of this movie is a romance.While it isn't awful,Sleeping with the Enemy fails to succeed in any genre it is considered to be and I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
A woman tries to escape an abusive husband by faking her own death and a starting a new life.Best Performance: Julia Roberts.
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.
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.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I think it's important to note first and foremost that it's a typical 90s movie, so if you're seeking originality you won't find it watching this one.The subject matter is that of domestic violence, yet the only wife-beating scene is extremely tame, and instead the film focuses on the psychological repercussions of such violence.
It's domestic strife that forces Julia to run away from an abusive husband (a psychopathic neatnik who goes to extremes about how he arranges towels in the bathroom or canned goods in the cupboard).Luckily, when Julia escapes to Iowa she's befriended by a kindhearted English teacher (KEVIN ANDERSON) who encourages her to talk a little about her past so that he can understand why she finds herself attracted to him but unable to connect because of some secret in her past.
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.
This is a thrilling and exciting movie about a woman, Laura (Laura Roberts) who fakes her own death in a boating accident in order to escape her physically abusive husband, Martin (Patrick Bergin).The suspense in this movie builds as we see the controlling and abusive behavior of Martin to Laura finally finding the opportunity to escape and hiding traces of her actually surviving the boating accident.
As a showcase for Julia Roberts admittedly spectacular beauty.Patrick Bergin tries hard in what is really a silly role as the abusive husband.
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.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I understood the real enemy to be the guy Julia Roberts ends up with at the end of the movie, not her husband.
This time the story is the husband-from-hell, and watching Roberts dealing with him at the film's outset makes for engaging viewing.
I feel like everyone needs to know if they don't already.1990 article on her comments about Abbeville: JULIA ROBERTS didn't exactly love Abbeville, S.C., where she worked on a film recently.
i guess this movie is OK.it's about a woman who meets the man of her dreams.they get married and everything seems perfect.four years later,things appear great.then,things start to unravel,slowly at first.hubby becomes manipulative and controlling,and then verbally and physically abusive.wife escapes his clutches,moves to new town,changes identity,new job,etc.then hubby tracks wife,swears revenge for her leaving,vows to kill her.that's the gist of the story,although there's a bit more going on,but i won't give it away.Julia Roberts plays the wife and Patrick Bergin plays the psycho husband.both are good in their respective roles, but the movie itself is lacking any real intensity and even though the wife is in danger,i just never really felt her jeopardy.in fact i found the movie boring and slow.i think that had more to do with the writing than the acting.this movie is standard for this genre,not that great,but there are worse.the performances of the two leads are enough to elevate the movie.so instead of 5*,i give "Sleeping with the Enemy" 6/10.
Julia Roberts, leads a little or no star cast with a lot of excitement and tension.Laura (Roberts) is married to Martin (Bergin), an anal compulsive executive, who beats her if the towels are not lined up correctly in the bathroom.
Being on edge, her only way out is escape, and the rest of the film circles around his tracking her down, and what happens when a good plan goes awry.Julia Roberts is good as usual, and one of the best performances I've ever seen her in.
Julia Roberts and Patrick Bergin shine as a battered housewife and a rich and an abusive husband.
I thought that Sara/Laura (Julia Roberts) looked beautiful in the black dress that she wore to the party early in the film.
Julia Roberts gives a slam dunk performance as a physically abused woman who is married to a jerk,, played by Patrick Bergin.
she visits with her mother in the nursing home to let her know that she is okay,, eventually the husband finds out that his "dead" wife is alive, and he starts to track her down and follow her, and find the man that she is in love with now,, very good movie,, I really liked it a lot,, and it features the classic Van Morrisson hit,, Brown Eyed Girl..
It held my interest, especially at the beginning, where one feels the tension in the beautiful home, and when all the little pieces of conversation come together.It seems like the object was to showcase Julia rather than the story - I found some of the scenes a big waste, such as her MTV video doing costume changes and yet another one of those couples dancing together and falling for one another scenes.I thought Kevin Anderson, a marvelous stage performer, did a great job as Julia's love interest, and Patrick Bergin was one scary husband.
Sleeping with the Enemy, directed by Joseph Rubin, begins with Laura Burney (Julia Roberts) and her husband Martin Burney(Patrick Bergin) in their luxurious beach home.
It was a good role for Julia Roberts, who plays the battered wife, and Patrick Bergin was also good as the abusive and controlling husband.
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.
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.
On the surface, Laura Burney (Julia Roberts) and her husband Martin (Patrick Bergin) are a wealthy and contented couple who enjoy a comfortable lifestyle and spend their leisure time at their luxurious house by the beach at Cape Cod. In reality though, Laura lives in a state of constant fear which has been created by Martin's abusive behaviour.Martin is a control freak with an obsessive compulsive disorder and a very cold personality.
She enjoys their friendship and also being able to visit her invalid mother at a nearby nursing home.Martin is under the impression that Laura's mother had passed away some time ago but when he starts to find pieces of information which make him suspect that his wife is still alive, his investigations soon reveal that the reality is somewhat different and that Laura's mother is actually a resident at the nursing home near Cedar Falls.Laura who seemed to have successfully escaped from her abuser soon discovers that, in reality, her intensely possessive and extremely violent husband will go to any lengths to ensure that she doesn't gain her freedom."Sleeping With The Enemy" is an entertaining movie which focuses on a form of violence which is rarely featured in commercial thrillers and maybe it's for this reason that some of scenes in which Laura is beaten seem so shocking, even to audiences whose exposure to on-screen violence has hardened their responses.Julia Roberts gives a sympathetic performance as a victim of domestic abuse who is trapped in a nightmare from which there seems to be no way out and also convincingly portrays the anxieties which her character continues to experience when she starts her new life in Iowa.
It isn't often that I can predict every (every!) turn in a thriller, but that is what happened in this movie.It was tense and disturbing until Julia Roberts dropped the ring in the toilet and we learn that it doesn't flush away.
Julia Roberts is very powerful as the abused wife, Laura and Patrick Bergin is cold and malicious as her husband, Martin.The film has a very strong introduction, in which the scene is set.
I feel it's one of Julia Roberts best films and Patrick Bergin is marvellous as the controlling, menacing husband.
Sleeping with the Enemy is a psychological thriller film starring Julia Roberts.Patrick Bergin,Kevin Anderson,Elizabeth Lawrence,Kyle Secor and Claudette Nevins co-star to play supporting roles.
Sleeping with the Enemy drifted off after the first act into cheap thrills with Roberts faking her death to escape her husband and goes to live in Iowa.
Granted, there are several "holes" in the movie compared to the book, you can't help but root for Julia Robert's "Laura." She seems to have planned her escape from her abusive husband so well, and yet a few careless mistakes tips him off.