The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is directed by Curtis Hanson and written by Amanda Silver. It stars Annabella Sciorra, Rebecca De Mornay, Matt McCoy, Julianne Moore and Ernie Hudson. Plot sees De Mornay as Peyton Flanders, on the surface a seemingly perfect nanny, but below beats the heart of a revenge fuelled maniac. Something that the Bartel family are about to find out.
It's the sort of thriller that arrived in the 1990's and got positive notices and thrilled many a cinema viewer. Yet you look at some of the internet ratings and you would be fooled into thinking that the film is not very good. Fact is is that these type of thrillers have, with the advent of time and a relaxation of censorship etc, not aged well to the point of not being able to satiate the current generation of thrill seeker. So it's most likely going to be hard for the unimpressed viewer of today to believe that Hanson's movie was once the subject of much media musings and talk show debates. Its theme of a terror within the family home, coupled with a beginning involving a less than honourable gynaecologist, really goes for the throat of the female viewer. The guys, meanwhile, just have to sit back and observe how man of the family Matt McCoy deals with the expanding problem in the home, while the shapely form of De Mornay, in spite of her seriously having a screw loose, is sure to be appealing to the red blooded male.
True enough some of its silly, and naturally contrived, but it does tick many of the great thriller boxes. It's also boosted by two impressively strong lead female turns from Sciorra, who is dressed down plainly and perfectly gets to grips with the nuclear mom act, and De Mornay, who paces the onset of her terror campaign with some aplomb; a campaign dotted with icy cold bitch moments and sensual niceties. In support Hudson is very good, but the trajectory of his mentally challenged character is telegraphed very early on, while Moore works well with what (sadly) little screen time she gets. Hanson keeps the tension tight, slowly tightening the noose in little snatches, and the ending, that arguably holds no surprises if you watch many thrillers of this ilk, is handled skillfully and closes the film in a wave of fists, kicks, blood and broken bodies. Job done. Even if it did at the time set the nanny trade back a few years! 7.5/10
It's the sort of thriller that arrived in the 1990's and got positive notices and thrilled many a cinema viewer. Yet you look at some of the internet ratings and you would be fooled into thinking that the film is not very good. Fact is is that these type of thrillers have, with the advent of time and a relaxation of censorship etc, not aged well to the point of not being able to satiate the current generation of thrill seeker. So it's most likely going to be hard for the unimpressed viewer of today to believe that Hanson's movie was once the subject of much media musings and talk show debates. Its theme of a terror within the family home, coupled with a beginning involving a less than honourable gynaecologist, really goes for the throat of the female viewer. The guys, meanwhile, just have to sit back and observe how man of the family Matt McCoy deals with the expanding problem in the home, while the shapely form of De Mornay, in spite of her seriously having a screw loose, is sure to be appealing to the red blooded male.
True enough some of its silly, and naturally contrived, but it does tick many of the great thriller boxes. It's also boosted by two impressively strong lead female turns from Sciorra, who is dressed down plainly and perfectly gets to grips with the nuclear mom act, and De Mornay, who paces the onset of her terror campaign with some aplomb; a campaign dotted with icy cold bitch moments and sensual niceties. In support Hudson is very good, but the trajectory of his mentally challenged character is telegraphed very early on, while Moore works well with what (sadly) little screen time she gets. Hanson keeps the tension tight, slowly tightening the noose in little snatches, and the ending, that arguably holds no surprises if you watch many thrillers of this ilk, is handled skillfully and closes the film in a wave of fists, kicks, blood and broken bodies. Job done. Even if it did at the time set the nanny trade back a few years! 7.5/10