Directed by JOSEPH RUBEN Reviewed by Louise Whittle and Sean Tunney OVERALL, this is a good film by male Hollywood's standards. Women have had enough of the portrayal of neurotic women pursuing poor old men in such films as Fatal Attraction' and Play Misty for Me'. They know in real life it is almost always the other way round.
Laura (Julia Roberts) is, on the surface, happily married to a successful financial consultant. However, unknown to the outside world, Laura is also the subject of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.
Locked away in a modernist mansion isolated by the sea, she is only allowed out of her jail a few days a week. Martin (Patrick Bergin), the stereotypical chilling 'psychopath', even down to his dark suits, watches her constantly.
He demands perfection in everything, from making sure towels hang at the right length, to checking the tins of food in the cupboard are placed straight with labels at the centre Watching Laura submit herself to his abuse in mute terror is pretty horritying. Paradoxically, these scenes are all the more effective because generally the violence isn't actually shown, just implied. Meanwhile, Laura has been planning ner escape The sea which has been her captor provides her flight for freedom. Secretly she has been having swimming lessons. So, when she goes yachting with her husband, she fakes a drowning and leaves to find a now life.
Commemorating her mode of escape, she renames herself Sarah Waters. Eventually she finds friendship with a drama teacher (Kevin Anderson), who is everything Martin is not. For starters, he wears casual suits and doesn't have an eerie voice. They start a tentative relationship, and she opens up about her past for the first time.
But, of course, Martin is on her trail, his twitches and mannerisms becoming even more exaggerated. When he finally meets up with her, the scenes resort to cliché.
Setting the story among the rich has its strengths and weaknesses. It means that Laura has a financial independence not afforded to working class women. However, it also questions the myth that abuse only happens in working class families.
Equally, Julia Roberts is quite convincing in her multi-layered role. She has, at the same time, to convey the idea of being under her husband, while undermining him and also trying to find herself. Sometimes such a task is too much and she resorts to expressing one-dimensiona terror.
The biggest cliche though, is the portrayal of Bergin's character as in some way 'inhuman', while Anderson's character is all new man. It would have been much more interesting to see their personalities switched. Despite these criticisms though, the film is well worth seeing. No.2 May 18, 1991
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