Hand That Rocks the Cradle [VHS] Overview
A potboiler featuring a demented caretaker and a seemingly hapless suburban family, this is The Nanny of the 1990s. However, it is much more predictable than that 1965 Bette Davis psychodrama, and more graphic. It works only because Rebecca De Mornay makes us intensely uncomfortable as the disturbed au pair who wants to take care of much more than her employer's well-being.
Annabella Sciorra plays the perfect mother of a flawless family. Her obstetrician, however, is less than wonderful, having enjoyed her examination much more than he should have. When she files sexual harassment charges against the repugnant doctor, he loses face--literally--after shooting himself in the head. Several months later, an ideal nanny shows up at her home. You guessed it--she's the doc's widow.
The movie follows a tried and true formula, with the audience in on everything. However, the story does surprise us in intense and intimate ways. The visit to the obstetrician is one of the creepiest moments in the film. You definitely hear the voice of writer Amanda Silver in a plot concerned with the vulnerabilities of a family, a newborn, a marriage.
Since we know so much up front, there is an overall lack of inventiveness in the plot machinations. It may not jolt us, but De Mornay does. It's unsettling to watch someone who appears so attractive and who behaves so kindly suddenly reveal hideous psychopathic tendencies. Restraining herself from going over the top, she instead oozes such malevolence you'll want to shudder. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Customer Reviews
The acting, directing and writing are excellent, especially De Mornay's performance as the character of Payton vindictive malice. I have never seen this good deed. The story is scarrier time, and keep wondering what will be the next step to destroy Claire (Annabella Sciorra), is addressed to the person seeking revenge on her husband to suicide and the birth of a miscarriage from the shock. The voltage escalation. The author has submitted evidence that will be plantedAnnabelle possible to understand at last that his nurse (De Mornay), is the personification of absolute evil.
I had this movie five stars if the author had established a credible background for Peyton, so that Claire and her husband Michael have created a sound basis for hiring her as a nanny for her young daughter and the child come. No matter how fascinating a nanny is a person who wakes up and reads the news, or sometimes some of the mysteries Dateline and CBS News, who knowsFirst impressions are often misleading. 99.9% of the population was asked to Peyton some verifiable references - are people who could vouch for their character and ability to care for children - and then they checked. But this was not done, setting the rest of the story of an incredible foundation. The writer had Peyton must establish some kind of recognition - even if reccomendation by a curriculum false and wrong letter and some sympathetic friend to do to get it back.
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