Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Sleeping with the Enemy Blu-ray Movie Review

Stalking with the Psycho-Spouse

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 14, 2011

Star power isn't always good for a film. Julia Roberts was a promising newcomer when she signed onto Sleeping with the Enemy, but by the time filming began, Pretty Woman had made Roberts a superstar. Ever since then, Sleeping with the Enemy has been known as a "Julia Roberts movie", when it would be more accurate to call it a "Joseph Ruben movie". The director had already demonstrated his talent for creating terror and suspense from heightened versions of everyday threats in The Stepfather, whose homicidal title character shared the same obsession with domestic order as the abusive husband in Sleeping with the Enemy. Ruben would attempt something similar with a variant of sibling rivalry in The Good Son, and he'd already dabbled in crime and politics with the underrated True Believer. When he made the mistake of stepping outside his comfort zone and tried a story driven by non-human forces in The Forgotten, the results were disappointing.

But while Roberts' new notoriety was good for the box office and guaranteed the film a long life in Fox's catalogue, Roberts isn't the reason why the film holds up. A film like Sleeping with the Enemy is only as good as its villain, and Patrick Bergin's obsessively controlling monster of a husband, who can seem oh-so-normal to everyone else, is what gives the film its real edge. Bergin's scenes, and the scenes where you can feel his influence, because all of his wife's energy is devoted to evading him, are the best reason to see the film.

Laura Burney (Roberts) appears to have the perfect life. She's been married for over three and a half years to a wealthy husband, Martin (Bergin), who works in the financial industry in Boston. They live in a modern, beautifully appointed home on Cape Cod that looks like it belongs in Architectural Digest, and Laura wants for nothing.

What no one but Laura sees is that Martin is a control freak who would be right at home in the town of Stepford. Everything in his house must be just so -- the towels on each rack neatly folded with edges all even, the canned goods in the kitchen neatly stacked according to size with the labels all facing forward -- and, if he finds anything out of place, he leads Laura to the problem and makes her correct it, which she does with a fake smile plastered on her face. For more serious offenses, such as the suspicion that Laura may have looked at another man, Martin knocks her to the floor. He calls this a "quarrel", which he makes up with flowers, gifts and empty terms of endearment, followed by sex -- which, for Martin, appears to require a kind of fetishistic ritual involving Berlioz' Symphony Fantastique. (Fans of Kubrick's The Shining will recognize it as the opening theme that plays as Jack Torrance drives to The Overlook.)

On this particular evening, Martin insists that Laura accompany him sailing on the boat of a new neighbor, Dr. Fleishman (Kyle Secor), even though he knows she's afraid of the water. During a freak storm, Laura disappears overboard and is never found, despite frantic searches by Martin and the coast guard. A funeral service is held, and Martin mourns the loss of his most prized possession.

Of course, Laura hasn't drowned. She's merely seized the opportunity to activate an escape plan she's been plotting for months. She's taken swimming lessons on the sly, accumulated cash, hidden clothing and a wig and, most importantly, relocated her ailing mother, Chloe (Elisabeth Lawrence), from her nursing home in Minneapolis to a new one in Iowa. Meanwhile, she's told Martin that her mother has died. While Martin is frantically searching the waters, Laura is headed west on a bus, where she tells her story to a sympathetic stranger (Nancy Fish).

Using the name "Sarah Waters", Laura rents a house in the small town of Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she proceeds to redecorate to her own taste and enjoy being messy. And wouldn't ya know it? The next door neighbor is male, young, single and good-looking (in a rough, bohemian way that's the antithesis of Martin). His name is Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), and he teaches drama at the local college. He takes to "Sarah" immediately, helping her get a job at the college's library and asking her out, but she's cautious about men, for reasons the audience can understand but Ben can't.

Back in Boston, Martin is trying to move on (whatever that may mean for a monster like him), when he gets a condolence call from a fellow student in Laura's swimming class. It's the first hole in Laura's "fake death" cover story. As Martin inquires further, other holes appear, and he begins pouring his considerable wealth and a maniac's determination into finding her. As Laura feared, her mother is her most exposed and vulnerable point. It's only a matter of time until Laura switches on her stereo to hear the strains of Berlioz flooding the Iowa house.

What I'm about to say may be heresy to hardcore Julia Roberts fans, but the weakest part of Sleeping with the Enemy is the middle section, where Laura is starting a new life with Ben. Not coincidentally, this is also the section in which Martin appears least and where Roberts gets to flash her trademark smile, as "Sarah" warms to Ben's attention. In plot terms, Ben has already served his purpose just by being there. The only reason to drag out their courtship by having him take "Sarah" on an extended backstage tour of the drama department, where she tries on costume after costume to the strains of "Brown-Eyed Girl", is to reward legions of Pretty Woman fans with a reprise of that film's famous shopping sequence. (Then again, the scene did supply the basis for one of Armand Assante's best bits in Fatal Instinct.) You can actually feel the box office pressures trumping the plot.

Today, you may find yourself fidgeting through these scenes, or simply fast-forwarding until the film returns to its story. The film's true narrative is Martin Burney's single-minded pursuit of his wife and her escape, which director Ruben shot in the style of a high-end slasher film. It's a style well-suited to the subject. By the time Martin has tracked down Laura, he's discarded even the thin veneer of civilized behavior that has allowed him to pass unnoticed for all these years. With his true nature fully revealed, he can finally be dealt with appropriately. When the film ends, it isn’t Roberts’ plucky Laura who lingers in the memory; it’s Bergin’s Martin, mocking his wife’s efforts to escape someone so obsessed.

Sleeping with the Enemy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray image is soft but detailed, such that the elaborate design of the Burney household is readily apparent. It's a cold environment, dominated by whites, blues and grays, with an occasional splash of vivid color to liven things up (like the lingerie Martin gives Laura). The pallette warms considerably when Laura reaches the Midwest; the house she rents is dominated by earthtones. The transfer delivers these shifts effectively, while fleshtones remain natural. Black levels appear accurate, with just occasional "crushing" here and there in the night-time sailing sequences. Grain is apparent but well-controlled, and I saw no evidence of DNR or other filtering, nor did I spot any compression-related artifacts.

Sleeping with the Enemy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As is typical of 5.1 remixes for films originally released in Dolby Stereo, the soundtrack is largely front-centered, but the surrounds do provide ambient support at key moments. Notable examples include the stormy sailing sequence during which Laura stages her disappearance and a session of Ben's theater class during which the echo of his voice becomes increasingly pronounced as the camera pulls farther back, ultimately revealing that he's being observed by someone. Bass extension is substantially improved by the discrete format, which is valuable for both the original score by Jerry Goldsmith and the soundtrack selections that play a key role in the story, notably Berlioz' Symphony Fantastique and Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl".

Sleeping with the Enemy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Since this is one of its own catalogue titles, Fox has provided a main menu and bookmarking. Now, if only the people in charge of MGM titles would get the memo.

• Featurette (SD; 1.33:1; 4:57): A brief EPK-style piece, of which the chief virtue is that it included brief interviews with each of the three main cast members and the director.
• Theatrical Trailer (SD; 2.35:1, enhanced; 1:51): Serviceable, but unremarkable, except for its aspect ratio, which is much wider than the film.

Sleeping with the Enemy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Aside from its basic plot, one of the notable features of Sleeping with the Enemy is how it portrays American life. The inhabitants of a small town in Iowa are seen as decent, friendly, concerned about their neighbors and receptive to newcomers. It's the eastern seaboard that bred a demon like Martin Burney and turned a blind eye to his misdeeds for years. Such favorable depictions of the American small town are supposed to be beyond Hollywood's capability, according to certain partisans, despite the steady stream of examples to the contrary, including It's a Wonderful Life, Field of Dreams and yes, Sleeping with the Enemy. Such people are like Martin Burney, always trying to force reality into a rigidly preconceived order and frequently losing their temper when it refuses to stack up neatly for them.

Sleeping with the Enemy is highly recommended on its technical merits. I give the film a qualified recommendation, for reasons discussed above.