Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)

From my favorite movies..

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

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. I can't complain too much about this movie. Snore through it, maybe, but not complain. Some of it is so ludicrous I wondered whether it was originally conceived as a spoof comedy. I found my spirits sinking the longer I watched it. The opening scenes on the beach were effective and had promise, but the rest if the movie is a complete waste of time. 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. He is so cliché, I'm not sure his character is meant to be as funny as he seems. As of the rest they seem to be from a struggling local amateur dramatic group and all just seem happy to be there.How this movie grossed what it did amazes me. My advice is give it a miss. Avoid it like the plague. Tell your friends to pass it by. The acting is bad, bad, bad (Roberts included)

Julia Roberts gives a slam dunk performance as a physically abused woman who is married to a jerk,, played by Patrick Bergin. Throughout the movie she is being mentally and physically abused by her husband,, well after a while she grows tired of it, and decides that she has had just about enough she can take, so one night , he decides to take her sailing knowing full well she can't swim and is terrorized by the water. little does he know that he is about to be set up by his wife,, she falls off of the neighbor's yacht, and he can't find her, so after a short while she is declared dead.. 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.

Martin Burney (Patrick Bergin) is an abusive husband to Laura (Julia Roberts). So she plans to escape by faking her own death. She starts a new life and falls for neighbor Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson).This is a Lifetime movie on steroids. Bergin is a cartoon character. Roberts is showing her movie star credential. And I don't like Anderson. I get the creepy vibes from Let's-do-a-Deal dude. It's the easiest thing to play the nice guy in this movie.This is a movie where flashbacks may be preferable to revealing everything right from the start. The first 15 minutes has Martin hitting Laura, showing Laura escaping, and basically laying out the entire story. There is a lot of possibilities that is lost there. The almost accidental run-in at the hospital is probably the only tense moment after the first 15 minutes. It just lacks tension or suspense.

In all honesty, this movie struck me as a bit flat, both in terms of plot and performances. To begin with, I'm not the biggest fan of Julia Roberts in the first place. I've had some mixed reactions to her work. She's been in a couple of good films, but much that I've seen has disappointed me. "Sleeping With The Enemy" has to rank in that "disappointing" category.It's cliché driven from beginning to end, and it hits every note possible in the story of an abused woman. 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'll grant that Roberts was the best part of a cast that really didn't inspire me very much.The movie is at times a bit slow paced, but in the last twenty minutes or so it does have all the required chills for this kind of movie, and there's some suspense about how it's all going to turn out. Still, for the most part it was a rather uninspired effort which left a lot to be desired. (5/10)