Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Hand That Rocks the Cradle: Peyton Should've Wiped Them All Out!

I may be in the minority on this one, but I positively hated this movie. I hated it the first time I saw it, but I thought I'd give it a chance when the movie was on cable again. 

Nope, still hated it. I actually found myself rooting for the bad guy (okay, woman) about halfway through the film. 

It starts out as your basic suspense/action flick: one character feels she was done wrong by another character and sets out for revenge. The problem was that nothing felt the least bit believable. 

Maybe part of it was me bringing my own prejudices into this movie. I meanClaire Bartel (Annabella Sciorra) is a stay-at-home-mom to these two beautiful kids, has a husband who's got a terrific job, has a handyman around the house & yard, and she still has to hire a nanny!!! Hello! You know what woman - you deserve someone like Peyton Flanders

But Peyton is not who she seems to be. She is actually the widow of the OB/GYNClaire accused of improper conduct during an examination. The subsequent hoopla surrounding the accusation caused Peyton to lose her own baby, and now she wants to take revenge by stealing Claire's life. 

The kids might be worth it. But Claire's husband Michael must have a cocaine business on the side because Matt McCoy looked wide-eyed and strung out throughout most of the movie. Why would anyone want him? 

Claire is supposed to be asthmatic as well, but Sciorra and the director can't even get that down right. Every time she has an attack it's like one little puff barely into her mouth and *poof* - it's over! 

Rebecca DeMornay seems to have a knack for picking pictures like this and parts like this after starting off her career so wonderfully in Risky Business. Though I ended up rooting for Peyton, it was more because of my disgust at the characters of Claire and Michael than DeMornay's performance. 

Of course, one of Claire's savvy working-friends (see, Claire is just a dumb housewife - she couldn't possibly figure it out for herself) figures out who Peytonreally is and ends up dead in a freak accident that Peyton had originally intended for Claire. Darn! I would've liked the movie better if it ended a bit darker than the way this one ends. 

Their handyman, Solomon was set up by Peyton because she knew that he was onto her. So of course, he comes back and saves the family despite being learning disabled and despite being driven off. 






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