Sleeping with the Enemy

Starring: Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin, Kevin Anderson, Elizabeth Lawrence
Directed by: Joseph Ruben
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Thriller
1991
Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A woman (Julia Roberts) fakes her own death to escape her abusive husband (Patrick Bergin). She starts a new life, but lives in fear that he will find her.

Review:

Tim: Sleeping with the Enemy is a poorly constructed thriller that stretches the limits of believability and features a script with far too many gaps in logic to be any good. The movie had some potential, but it just falls flat. I didn't enjoy the movie very much at all.

The big reason I disliked the film is that there are so many incredulous moments throughout the movie. There are some outright plot holes that simply defy logic. There are also far too many convenient events that would almost never happen in real life, but all occurred at the right times to set up the story. That's the biggest issue I had with the film- so many of the events feel like great stretches of logic and have no real purpose except to move the story along. I'll try not to give a spoiler while providing an example. Midway through the movie, the husband receives a phone call that tips him off to the truth about his wife. This in itself could actually have happened. However, the conversation is so poorly written that it's beyond obvious that the writers came up with the crappy dialogue for the sole reason of letting her husband know she was still alive. None of the events in the film felt organic or natural- everything seemed forced. That's the biggest weakness in this film.

Besides the ridiculousness of much of the movie, there are other flaws as well. The cast is not great. I admit that Julia Roberts gave a good performance. She certainly has some star power, and gave an emotional performance. I don't think she was fantastic, but she was far and away the best member of the cast. The rest of the cast is sadly lacking. There are so many wooden, forgettable performances that it's almost unbelievable. Patrick Bergin has a few very chilling moments, but mostly he's laughable as a boring yet clearly psychotic person. I didn't care for his performance at all. Likewise, Kevin Anderson was completely forgettable as the love interest for Roberts. Anderson's introduction felt silly and unrealistic and his character didn't get much better from there. The cast was really a letdown.

I really think there was a decent film buried somewhere in here. There are some difficult to watch scenes at the outset (no one likes watching domestic abuse). However, the script is so poorly written that there are dozens of plot holes throughout the entire movie. Those moments just took me out of the story and the characters. I spent so much of the film saying, "That would never happen!" or "Wow, how convenient was that?" Those are never good things to say.

There were some decent moments and a few strong suspenseful ones. Unfortunately, they are the minority. Most of the film is weak and poorly made. Director Joseph Ruben really ruined this movie. I was disappointed with it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Forgotten, The Good Son, The Stepfather, The Pelican Brief