“Someone’s dusk is someone else’s dawn” is a proverb that can be, on occasion, applied to the world of cinema. A single film can elevate and advance someone’s career while at the same time bringing someone else’s career to ruin. One notable example can be found in Sleeping with the Enemy, 1991 thriller directed by Joseph Ruben.
The film is based on the novel by Nancy Price. The protagonist, played by Julia Roberts, is Laura Williams Burney, young woman whose life looks idyllic from the outside – she lives in luxurious beach mansion at Cape Cod, owned by her wealthy husband, Boston investment counsellor Martin Burney (played by Patrick Bergin). On the inside, however, her life is living hell because Martin happens to be psychopath who emotionally, sexually and physically abuses her and tries to control every aspect of her life, submitting her to brutal punishments for each violation. Laura decides to end her misery by faking death in boating accident and later starts new life under new identity in Cedar Falls, small college town in Iowa. There she lives simpler but much happier life and meets kind-hearted charming drama teacher Ben Woodward (played by Kevin Anderson). Unfortunately, Martin later realises that his wife is alive and begins to track her down, using her stroke-impaired mother Chloe (played by Elizabeth Lawrence) to discover her whereabouts.
Director Joseph Ruben has directed many interesting films in 1980s, most notable of them being horror thriller The Stepfather. Since both films are based in seemingly perfect homes inhabited by psychopathic monsters, Ruben seemed like a good choice for the project. Sleeping with the Enemy works best in the beginning when we are slowly, through subtle hints, introduced to the protagonist’s predicament. Later, when Laura escapes, script by Ronald Bass begins to drown in cliches which, among other things, include protagonist finding happiness in a man who represents anti-thesis of her tormentor – a bearded man whose relaxed ways make him look much younger than he is and who conforms to Hollywood conventions of bohemian lifestyle being superior to yuppie values embodied in Martin. But the more problematic are some plot holes and implausibilities that serves no other purpose than the excuse for film to take predictably suspenseful and violent turn near the very end, including final showdown that looks too much like belonging to slasher films and with Laura as Final Girl.
On the other hand, Sleeping with the Enemy benefits a lot from strong performance of Julia Roberts. Young actress, who had only recently won stellar fame with her role in Pretty Woman, was quite keen of prove her versatility and enthusiastically accepted role of battered wife. She plays that role very well, confidently displaying fear, despair, but also determination and resourcefulness. Ruben as director also does more than solid job, although his attempts to elevate the material with few suspenseful scenes prove insufficient. Veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith provides adequate music score which is, however, less memorable than the use of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique as Martin’s sinister theme or Van Morrison’s 1960s pop hit “Brown-Eyed Girl” which serves as main theme for Laura. Many of the film’s flaws were recognised by critics that gave it resounding thumbs down. The ordinary viewers, still very much in love with Roberts, thought differently and Sleeping with the Enemy became big hit, solidifying Roberts’ status as one of the biggest female stars of 1990s. Things turned quite differently for Patrick Bergin. Tall, handsome and charismatic Irish actor who had been seen as “next Sean Connery” played the part of evil husband a little too well. The audience began to associate him with character who abused America’s screen darling and this image, just like with Alan Arkin after Wait Until Dark and his character’s abuse of Audrey Hepburn two decades earlier, made studios vary of casting him in lead roles, thus torpedoing his career. Although hardly among the best Hollywood films of its time, Sleeping with the Enemy left strong impression in South Asian cinema, leading to numerous remakes in subsequent decade.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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