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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Walt Disney Video
Salesrank: 6606
Released: December 8, 1998 |
| Our Price: $6.64 |
| Used Price: $5.24 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Get ready for edge-of-your-seat excitement with the hit that rocked the nation! In this entertaining thriller, Claire Bartel (Annabella Sciorra -- THE HARD WAY, INTERNAL AFFAIRS) has the perfect life and family -- and exactly what Petyon Flanders (Rebecca De Mornay -- RISKY BUSINESS) desires desperately. But once Peyton deceptively becomes the Bartels' live-in housekeeper, how far will she really go when the life she wants belongs to someone else? From absorbing start to heart-stopping finish, this critically acclaimed winner delivers a lively mix of thrills, chills, and surprises equaling 100% fun!
Description of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle:
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
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Reviews:
Nanny from hell :-l 
2008-08-10 - What a stunningly creepy movie this is. I still love it after all this time and go back to it every now and then to re-creep myself out. It always gives me chills. Rebecca does a good job at playing the evil nanny Peyton - almost like the role was made for her alone. She is a widow who lost her husband to suicide and an unborn child to a miscarriage. Hence, the anger in her (and vengence).
This is a solid movie with a great cast (and a fantastic Julianne Moore) and while it's predictable, it also has a sense of realism. I really enjoy it and still love watching it. I hope you will as well, especially if you like really good thrillers. This can't be beat.
A little revenge never hurts, right?
2008-07-14 - The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is one creepy film but I enjoyed it. Rebecca de Mornay plays a manipulative and revenge-seeking nanny. I am kinda surprised this thriller is directed by Curtis Hanson, doesn't seem like his type of movie. I won't give away too much but De Mornay's character has been through a tragedy and she will stop at nothing to seek solace even if it means driving a happily married couple insane. I highly recommend this cat and mouse game, enjoy!
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle DVD Review 
2008-06-16 - The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is a suspenseful film with convincing performances by Rebecca De Mornay and Annabella Sciorra. The lovely Rebecca De Mornay does a fine job playing a vicious nanny. The film also has a fine score by Graeme Revell. It is disappointing that the 1.85:1 widescreen DVD is not enhanced for 16:9 TVs. The picture is of average quality and the audio is average.
The Best Psychotic Thriller Ever Is The Hand That Rocks The Cradle!
2008-01-11 - This was the best pyschotic movie ever! Rebecca DeMornay is so secretly evil and mentally disturbed yet all throughout the movie she sure does a great job of hiding it and putting on a sweet,innocent facade until the truth is finally revealed about who she really is from the help of Claire Bartel's best friend, Marlene Craving, who, unfortunately dies at hands of Peyton's dirtywork which was originally intended for Claire to face. As the movie goes on it gets creepier and more terrifying, especially towards the end of the movie, when Peyton pretends she has left yet is devilishly hiding in the house ready to kill both Michael and Claire after now feeling betrayed by both of them. The most chilling and cruel scene is the part where Peyton realizes that Clair has an "Achilles Heal"...ASTHMA...and she tries tries to kill Claire by stealing her asthma inhalers and pumping the medicine out of all of them, nearly killing Claire when she suffers an asthma attack seeing Marlene lying dead in the greenhouse and can't find an inhaler that works until it is too late and she collapses on the porch from lack of oxygen nearly dying until luckily help arrives and Claire is finally revived and ok. That scene to me was the cruelest playing on a person's weak point like that. But I guess that a crazy person will by any means do whatever it takes to get rid of someone they really resent and seek revenge upon without feeling any remorse about it as Peyton clearly showed. The other scene that was the cruelest was the scene where Peyton and Claire are fighting and Claire suddenly has an asthma attack while they are fighting and Peyton just looks down at the wheezing Claire,smiling, and saracastically asks,"Something the matter,Claire?" And then as Claire is wheezing to death Peyton bends down and whispers to Claire that she now has total control of the family. But,fortunately, to our surprise, Claire somehow becomes strong and in a rage pushes Peyton out the window ending her and dirtywork for good. What is sweet is how then Claire is ok and realizes that she can trust Solomon with her family and let's him carry baby Joey downstairs as she goes to get help for poor Michael whom was left paralyzed by Peyton in the basement because he had betrayed her by being faithful to wife Claire and admitting this to her. Wow, did Peyton take Michael by surprise in that scene hitting him with the shovel sending him flying over the steps back down on the basement floor paralyzed and smashing the lightbulb leaving him in the dark. I give this movie 5 stars because the Peyton Flanders character is one of the most evil and psychotic characters to ever chill a movie screen and its audience. This movie is the best for anyone who is a true fan of pyschotic thrillers.
Rebecca can babysit me anytime
2008-01-08 - This is a great film. Direction, cinematography, editing, and acting are all terrific. I just love how evil De Mornay is here. The eyes, the body - so alluring. Not having seen this in some time, I'd forgotten that a young Julianne Moore was in it too. This is a film that needs a special edition; so come on let's have it!
