Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)

Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) lands on the podcast courtesy of Nic, who has a habit of bringing thrillers Steve has never seen. Pacific Heights, Cape Fear, The River Wild -- all Nic joints, all new to Steve. The streak continues.

The setup: Julia Roberts is Laura, a woman living a gorgeous, terrible life on Cape Cod with a controlling husband named Martin who irons his soul right out of every room he enters. His towels are aligned to the millimeter. His reaction to a neighbor admiring the house is to accuse his wife of sleeping with him. His idea of a post-beating apology is lingerie and the words "I'm sorry we quarreled." Nic notes the New York Times would be proud of that phrasing, and that the lingerie is not exactly a gift.

The movie opened by knocking Home Alone off the top of the box office after sixteen straight weeks -- and Steve immediately clocks that the opening score sounds suspiciously like John Williams by way of a holiday film. His read: someone heard what America was watching and said, "give me that Home Alone sound for the movie where America's sweetheart kills a man at the end." The Saturn Award nomination for Best Music is examined with appropriate skepticism.

What works here is sharp: the foreshadowing that doesn't telegraph, the commitment to Laura as the one who saves herself (not Ben, who is unconscious and irrelevant by the time it matters, like a WWF referee who took the bump), and a third-act line to a 911 operator that nearly earned a bonus half-point from Steve on the spot. What doesn't work is Martin, who both dads agree is cartoonish to the point of farce -- Snidely Whiplash with a Versa Climber and Berlioz on the tape deck.

The casting conversation alone is worth the runtime. Two men watch a movie and ask: who should have been in this? The answer keeps circling back to a Hollywood that wasn't ready to hand a starring vehicle to a woman and expect men to show up and play second.

Martin gets what's coming to him. The ring twinkles on the floor. The Home Alone music has come full circle.