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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Walt Disney Video
Salesrank: 11211
Released: December 8, 1998 |
| Our Price: $6.86 |
| Used Price: $5.48 |
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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:
Great Revenge Thriller 
2009-06-15 - The acting, directing, and writing are superb, especially De Mornay's performance of vengeful malevolence as the character Payton . I've never seen her act this well. The story becomes scarrier by the moment, and you keep wondering what she will do next to destroy Claire (Annabella Sciorra), the person she turns her revenge on for causing her husband to commit suicide and herself to miscarriage from the shock. The suspense keeps escalating. The writer has deftly planted the clues that will enable annabelle to finally figure out that her nanny (De Mornay)is the personification of pure evil.
I would have given this film five stars if the writer had established a believable background for Peyton so that Claire and her husband Michael would have had a solid basis for hiring her as a nanny for their young daughter and the coming baby. No matter how charming a nanny is, anyone who reads and watches the news, or views some of the Dateline and CBS news mysteries, knows that first impressions can often be misleading. 99.9% of persons would have asked Peyton for some checkable references--people who could vouch for her character and ability to care for children--and then checked them. But this was not done, setting the rest of the story on an unbelievable foundation. The writer should have had Peyton establish some kind of a reputation--even if done with a false resume and false letters of reccomendation and a few sympathetic friends to back her up.
Notwithstanding, I highly reccommend this thriller.
"A Film That Never Ages" 
2009-05-04 - "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle" first hit theatres in January, 1992 and was immediately a boxoffice hit, staying at #1 for over two weeks. It was one of those Hollywood films that made people talk about how important it was for people to do a thorough investigation of nanny's when it came time to hire those to care for one's child.
The movie is about a young couple living in Seattle who hire a woman to be the caregiver for their little girl Emma and their new-born son Joe. Rebecca DeMornay, best known for playing a prostitute in the Tom Cruise flick "Risky Business", became a movie star in "The Hand That Rocks That Cradle". DeMornay plays a crazed woman seeking revenge on the mother who she works for, as she blames her for the death of her husband who committed suicide. Peyton, the DeMornay character, is one of the most vicious villins in movie history, as she makes life a living hell for the family that entrusts her with their lives and their home.
This is s first-rate thriller and the ending is one of the best. The DVD is pretty much barebones, but it does come with the trailer. Look for Ernie Hudson who plays a small role in the movie as a mentally challenged handy man. Hudson would gain fame as the prison warden in HBO's "Oz" in 1997.
Unsatisified 
2009-04-07 - Ordered this item March 6, 2009 still to this day I have not recevied this item!!!
The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
2009-01-06 - Suspense, Fear, Disbelief...Awesome movie! You must watch this more than once. Great ending!
Fabulous psycho-thriller ... a ripping story of twisted love and revenge
2008-12-13 - In this classic psycho-thriller, an impossibly beautiful Rebecca De Mornay pursues an ingenious plan of revenge. After her doctor husband commits suicide after being accused of sexually abusing a patient, his gorgeous wife (De Mornay) plots revenge. Without revealing her true identity, she obtains the job of live-in nanny to the family the mother of which was the primary accuser. More would be telling. This is a great thriller.
The tension in this film never lets up, and there are tensions of all kinds. There is sexual tension, because the live-in nanny (De Mornay) is incredibly gorgeous, and you just have to wonder about a wife who would allow another woman this beautiful to live in her home, and hang around her husband that way. (Quite a thought, actually.) Plus, the viewer never has any doubt about De Mornay's evil intentions, although there is doubt about whether she is coolly plotting revenge, whether she is truly psycho, or both. I won't tell.
This is a disturbing and tense film that keeps the viewer in suspense throughout. Rebecca De Mornay is absolutely awesome in this film, and the supporting cast is superb as well. Highly recommended.
