Sleeping with the Enemy (1991 film)
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| Sleeping with the Enemy | |
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 Theatrical Release Poster |
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| Directed by | Joseph Ruben |
| Produced by | Leonard Goldberg |
| Written by | Nancy Price |
| Starring | Julia Roberts Patrick Bergin Kevin Anderson |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | February 8, 1991 |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Sleeping with the Enemy is a 1991 psychological thriller film based on a 1987 novel of the same name by Nancy Price, starring Julia Roberts, who escapes from her abusive, obsessive husband, played by Patrick Bergin. She captures the attention of a kindly gentleman, played by Kevin Anderson.
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[edit] Awards
The score by Jerry Goldsmith won the BMI Film Music Award, 1992, and the film was nominated for the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Award for 1992 in four categories: Best Actress (Roberts), Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor (Bergin), Best Horror Film and Best Music (Goldsmith).
[edit] Plot summary
Laura Burney (Julia Roberts) escapes her abusive, possessive husband Martin (Patrick Bergin) by carefully planning and faking her own disappearance at sea in a storm off Cape Cod near the couple's luxurious ocean-view home. Martin attends her funeral when her body is not found.
In flashback, we see how she swims to safety, having taken swimming lessons at the YWCA. She 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 Iowa. In preparation she has told her husband that her mother died, and pretended to attend the funeral, but secretly she had moved her to a nursing home in Iowa. She rents a modest house and adopts the name Sara Waters.
Picking apples from a neighbor's garden one day she is caught by the owner, Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), who teases her about stealing them. After a poor beginning, Ben asks Laura to dinner, where he tells her that he teaches drama at the local college, but Laura tells him nothing about herself.
Martin is enraged to learn from a chance phone call from the YWCA that Laura had been taking swimming lessons. He finds the ring in the toilet bowl where it failed to flush, and sets out to find her. From the Cape Cod nursing home, he find out that Laura's mother isn't dead, and using a detective agency he traces her to her new nursing home in Iowa. He visits the blind woman, Chloe Williams (Elizabeth Lawrence), without revealing his identity.
Meanwhile Laura and Ben have a falling-out when he discovers that her real name is not Sara. They make up with a date at the college. Laura rejects a pass from Ben, and leaves. The next day she confesses that she is on the run from an abusive husband.
Martin and Laura, who is in disguise, show up at the nursing home at the same time, but they do not see one another. Posing as a policeman warning Chloe about the dangerous Martin Burney, he learns from her that her daughter is seeing a college drama teacher in nearby Cedar Falls. Martin is about to smother her with a pillow, when a nurse arrives and unknowingly thwarts him,
Martin visits the wrong college drama teacher and threatens him with a gun. The man protests that he is gay, and Martin knocks him unconscious. Martin finds Laura and Ben and clandestinely follows them to the fair and back to her home. Laura first knows something is up through a series of seemingly random mishaps: her bath overflows, her toast burns, and her bath towels are lined up wrong. Then she hears the Symphonie fantastique, a musical piece Martin used to like to make love to. Martin attacks Ben and knocks him unconscious. Laura feigns affection and pretends to go along with Martin's plans to take her back, After a suspense-filled tussle she manages to reach a phone and call the police and tell says, "Come quickly. I've just killed an intruder.." Martin's face turns to horror and Laura shoots him several times. As a sobbing Laura collapses, Martin grabs her by the hair and points the gun to her face. But when he pulls the trigger, the gun only clicks, as all the bullets are gone. Martin sags lifelessly to the floor. As Ben slowly wakes up, Laura goes to him and they embrace. The movie ends with a closeup of Martin's body lying in the foreground with Laura's wedding ring inches from his hand.
[edit] Cast
- Julia Roberts as Laura Burney, a woman who suffers domestic violence from her husband, Martin.
- Patrick Bergin as Martin Burney, a wife-beater who tries to kill his wife Laura.
[edit] Remakes
The film was remade in India four times: the Hindi language films Yaraana (1995 film), Daraar (1996), Agni Sakshi (1996), and Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe (2002).
