Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Blu-ray Movie Review

Mary Poppins She Ain't

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 3, 2012

Before winning an Oscar in 1998 for co-writing L.A. Confidential (and, as some still bemoan, being bested for directing and producing Oscars by that year's Titanic sweep), Curtis Hanson scored at the box office with several skillfully constructed thrillers about families in crisis. The first was 1992's The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, which quickly came to be known as "the nanny from hell movie". Star Rebecca De Mornay did a 180-degree departure from the vamps, girlfriends and wives she'd played to date (most recently in Ron Howard's Backdraft) to transform herself into a domestic psychopath, and the script by Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) was smartly written to give De Mornay's character a credible reason for going over the edge.

The result holds up, even though there are moments (a lot of them) where you want to yell at the screen, because the film's characters are so stupidly oblivious to the predatory snake wrapping itself around them and slowly tightening its coils. But those are precisely the fears on which Hanson and Silver were playing. Who can be on alert every minute of every day? When people are at home with family, they drop their guard and relax, and that's when they're vulnerable. The most devastating attacks in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle often occur in the most ordinary moments: dropping off clothes at the dry cleaner, visiting the kitchen at night or driving home from shopping.

The Bartel family of Seattle is picture perfect. Husband Michael (Matt McCoy) is a genetic engineer. Wife Claire (Annabella Sciorra) is pregnant with their second child, a boy who will be named Joey. Daughter Emma (Madeline Zima, who grew up to be Hank Moody's nemesis on Californication) is bright, cute, well-behaved and can't wait to have a little brother. The family lives in a large, tastefully appointed house where Claire wants to build a greenhouse in the backyard.

The family's undoing begins when Claire visits a new physician for OB/GYN, Dr. Victor Mott (John de Lancie), who gets his nurse out of the examining room on a pretext and turns Claire's exam into a grope session. With her husband's full support, Claire bring charges, prompting other patients of Dr. Mott to come forward. Mott has his license revoked and dies shortly thereafter. His assets are frozen, leaving his wife (De Mornay) broke. She too is pregnant, but the strain of her husband's disgrace and her financial straits cause a miscarriage.

Six months later, the Bartels are back to normal, with Joey cooing in his crib and Claire interviewing nannies. She has no luck until one day the ideal candidate appears from nowhere, calling herself "Peyton Flanders" and looking exactly like Victor Mott's widow, whom none of the Bartels appear to recognize from newspaper photos, although later in the film another character will spot Mrs. Mott easily in an old article reporting on her husband's funeral. (You know how it is; some people don't read the papers.)

With the intensity of the truly vengeful, Peyton sets about winning the hearts and minds of Michael and Emma Bartel, while using her inside position to scope out every weakness of Claire's, from her asthma to the fact that Michael used to date the female half of their close friends, the Cravens, Marty (Kevin Skousen) and Marlene (Julianne Moore). Before long, Peyton has planted enough evidence to convince Claire that Michael and Marlene have rekindled their romance—and that's just one of the many ways Peyton undermines Claire. "Never, ever let an attractive woman take a power position in your home", Marlene warns Claire when she first hears they've hired someone. Her instincts are correct, but even after she stumbles onto Peyton's real identity, she too underestimates her.

The only person close to the household who sees the real Peyton is the mentally challenged handyman, Solomon (Ernie Hudson), whom the family has hired through a local charity, the Better Day Society, to build a fence, and with whom they bond so successfully that they keep finding new work for him to do. As for Peyton, she doesn't need to win him over, and she lacks the patience to accept Solomon's disability or the slightest hint of human warmth or kindness; so she simply simply threatens him into submission by calling him "retard" and letting him know that, if he crosses her, she'll have him ousted from the Bartel home with false accusations. Eventually she does just that.

Solomon's character occasioned substantial criticism when the film was released, because the combination of an African-American actor and a mentally challenged character struck many viewers as a throwback to old stereotypes of the child-like negro servant. Then again, thrillers are manipulative by their very nature, and trafficking in stereotypes is part of their standard bag of tricks. Silver's script creates periodic opportunities for Peyton's facade to crack, and director Hanson paces the film expertly to build to those moments with tense scenes highlighting the restraint reflected in Peyton's cold eyes. Abjectly defenseless characters like Solomon are ideal targets on whom Peyton can cut loose, as is the school bully, Roth (Justin Zaremby), who persecutes Emma. These are rehearsals for Peyton's ultimate attack on Claire. (Admittedly, there are other dimensions to the Solomon character, which can't be discussed without major spoilers.)

Julianne Moore's Marlene has relatively little screen time, but she gives the film a jolt of energy whenever she appears. A high-end real estate broker, Marlene has no children and shows little interest in acquiring any. She's the opposite of Claire, because she's already assessed the impossibility of having it all, chosen her priorities and put work ahead of family. Her hard-charging style is epitomized by the command she barks at an underling when he asks what to tell a client: "You have a Harvard education, make something up!" Marlene's only mistake is believing that a tough attitude and a good manicure are enough to protect her.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle was one of several films shot by cinematographer Robert Elswit for director Hanson, but as Elswit said when he accepted the Oscar for P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood, much of what he does is determined by the production design. The Bartel household where much of the film takes place features a neutral-toned decor that becomes a place of perpetual blandness under the perpetually overcast Seattle sky. It's not black-and-white so much as tone-on-tone, which must have made the scenes challenging to light. The image on Disney's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray has, for the most part, a pleasingly film-like quality with natural grain patterns, appropriate black levels, good but not overstated contrast and colors that are dialed down without becoming too pale. Detail is excellent throughout. Here and there, very lightly, a touch of digital sharpening can be detected, but one must be looking for it. It's certainly not enough to create obvious edge halos or other pronounced artifacts. Compression errors, banding and similar artifacts were not an issue.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's original stereo soundtrack has been remixed for 5.1 and released on Blu-ray in DTS-HD MA 5.1. The mix is front-centered and has almost nothing in the way of surround activity except for an increased sense of presence and depth. Dialogue is clear, and the effective score by Graeme Revell has a full dynamic range.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only extra is the film's theatrical trailer (SD; 1:33; 1:52). At startup the disc plays trailers for Frankenweenie and Who Framed Roger Rabbit on Blu-ray, plus an anti-smoking PSA. These are available from the main menu as "Sneak Peeks", along with trailers for The Avengers, ABC TV on Blu-ray, Castle: Season 4 and ABC TV on DVD.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As I said in a recent review of Arachnophobia (which we have since withdrawn after Disney pulled back all its product and set a new release date to address various issues), the company's erratic output makes each Blu-ray an adventure. It is therefore a pleasant surprise to discover that a catalog title like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle has been given a fairly respectable treatment, and it's equally pleasant to report that Disney has released a barebones disc without trying to dress it up with an empty label like "Twentieth Anniversary Release" (which, in fact, this is). What Blu-ray consumers really want is an accurate transfer, compression without artifacts and the original soundtrack in lossless format. The rest is gravy. Recommended.