The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Blu-ray delivers great video and solid audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
After her disgraced husband dies, an embittered pregnant widow loses her child, and embarks on a mission of vengeance against a woman and her family.
For more about The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and the The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Blu-ray release, see The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on September 3, 2012 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
Before winning an Oscar in 1998 for co-writing L.A. Confidential (and, as some still bemoan,
being bested for directing and producing Oscars by that year's Titanic sweep), Curtis Hanson
scored at the box office with several skillfully constructed thrillers about families in crisis. The
first was 1992's The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, which quickly came to be known as "the nanny
from hell movie". Star Rebecca De Mornay did a 180-degree departure from the vamps,
girlfriends and wives she'd played to date (most recently in Ron Howard's Backdraft) to
transform herself into a domestic psychopath, and the script by Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet
of the Apes) was smartly written to give De Mornay's character a credible reason for going over
the edge.
The result holds up, even though there are moments (a lot of them) where you want to yell at the
screen, because the film's characters are so stupidly oblivious to the predatory snake wrapping
itself around them and slowly tightening its coils. But those are precisely the fears on which
Hanson and Silver were playing. Who can be on alert every minute of every day? When people
are at home with family, they drop their guard and relax, and that's when they're vulnerable. The
most devastating attacks in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle often occur in the most ordinary
moments: dropping off clothes at the dry cleaner, visiting the kitchen at night or driving home
from shopping.
The Bartel family of Seattle is picture perfect. Husband Michael (Matt McCoy) is a genetic
engineer. Wife Claire (Annabella Sciorra) is pregnant with their second child, a boy who will be
named Joey. Daughter Emma (Madeline Zima, who grew up to be Hank Moody's nemesis on
Californication) is bright, cute, well-behaved and can't wait to have a little brother. The family
lives in a large, tastefully appointed house where Claire wants to build a greenhouse in the
backyard.
The family's undoing begins when Claire visits a new physician for OB/GYN, Dr. Victor Mott
(John de Lancie), who gets his nurse out of the examining room on a pretext and turns Claire's
exam into a grope session. With her husband's full support, Claire bring charges, prompting
other patients of Dr. Mott to come forward. Mott has his license revoked and dies shortly
thereafter. His assets are frozen, leaving his wife (De Mornay) broke. She too is pregnant, but the
strain of her husband's disgrace and her financial straits cause a miscarriage.
Six months later, the Bartels are back to normal, with Joey cooing in his crib and Claire
interviewing nannies. She has no luck until one day the ideal candidate appears from nowhere,
calling herself "Peyton Flanders" and looking exactly like Victor Mott's widow, whom none of
the Bartels appear to recognize from newspaper photos, although later in the film another
character will spot Mrs. Mott easily in an old article reporting on her husband's funeral. (You
know how it is; some people don't read the papers.)
With the intensity of the truly vengeful, Peyton sets about winning the hearts and minds of
Michael and Emma Bartel, while using her inside position to scope out every weakness of
Claire's, from her asthma to the fact that Michael used to date the female half of their close
friends, the Cravens, Marty (Kevin Skousen) and Marlene (Julianne Moore). Before long, Peyton
has planted enough evidence to convince Claire that Michael and Marlene have rekindled their
romance—and that's just one of the many ways Peyton undermines Claire. "Never, ever let an
attractive woman take a power position in your home", Marlene warns Claire when she first
hears they've hired someone. Her instincts are correct, but even after she stumbles onto Peyton's
real identity, she too underestimates her.
The only person close to the household who sees the real Peyton is the mentally challenged
handyman, Solomon (Ernie Hudson), whom the family has hired through a local charity, the
Better Day Society, to build a fence, and with whom they bond so successfully that they keep
finding new work for him to do. As for Peyton, she doesn't need to win him over, and she lacks
the patience to accept Solomon's disability or the slightest hint of human warmth or kindness; so
she simply simply threatens him into submission by calling him "retard" and letting him know
that, if he crosses her, she'll have him ousted from the Bartel home with false accusations.
Eventually she does just that.
Solomon's character occasioned substantial criticism when the film was released, because the
combination of an African-American actor and a mentally challenged character struck many
viewers as a throwback to old stereotypes of the child-like negro servant. Then again, thrillers are
manipulative by their very nature, and trafficking in stereotypes is part of their standard bag of
tricks. Silver's script creates periodic opportunities for Peyton's facade to crack, and director
Hanson paces the film expertly to build to those moments with tense scenes highlighting the
restraint reflected in Peyton's cold eyes. Abjectly defenseless characters like Solomon are ideal
targets on whom Peyton can cut loose, as is the school bully, Roth (Justin Zaremby), who
persecutes Emma. These are rehearsals for Peyton's ultimate attack on Claire. (Admittedly, there
are other dimensions to the Solomon character, which can't be discussed without major spoilers.)
Julianne Moore's Marlene has relatively little screen time, but she gives the film a jolt of energy
whenever she appears. A high-end real estate broker, Marlene has no children and shows little
interest in acquiring any. She's the opposite of Claire, because she's already assessed the
impossibility of having it all, chosen her priorities and put work ahead of family. Her hard-charging style is epitomized by the command she barks at
an underling when he asks what to tell
a client: "You have a Harvard education, make something up!" Marlene's only mistake is
believing that a tough attitude and a good manicure are enough to protect her.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle was one of several films shot by cinematographer Robert Elswit
for director Hanson, but as Elswit said when he accepted the Oscar for P.T. Anderson's ThereWill Be Blood, much of what he does is determined by the production design. The Bartel
household where much of the film takes place features a neutral-toned decor that becomes a
place of perpetual blandness under the perpetually overcast Seattle sky. It's not black-and-white
so much as tone-on-tone, which must have made the scenes challenging to light. The image on
Disney's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray has, for the most part, a pleasingly film-like quality with
natural grain patterns, appropriate black levels, good but not overstated contrast and colors that
are dialed down without becoming too pale. Detail is excellent throughout. Here and there, very
lightly, a touch of digital sharpening can be detected, but one must be looking for it. It's certainly
not enough to create obvious edge halos or other pronounced artifacts. Compression errors,
banding and similar artifacts were not an issue.
The film's original stereo soundtrack has been remixed for 5.1 and released on Blu-ray in DTS-HD MA 5.1. The mix is front-centered and has almost
nothing in the way of surround activity
except for an increased sense of presence and depth. Dialogue is clear, and the effective score by
Graeme Revell has a full dynamic range.
The only extra is the film's theatrical trailer (SD; 1:33; 1:52). At startup the disc plays trailers for
Frankenweenie and Who Framed Roger Rabbit on Blu-ray, plus an anti-smoking PSA. These are
available from the main menu as "Sneak Peeks", along with trailers for The Avengers, ABC TV
on Blu-ray, Castle: Season 4 and ABC TV on DVD.
As I said in a recent review of Arachnophobia (which we have since withdrawn after Disney
pulled back all its product and set a new release date to address various issues), the company's
erratic output makes each Blu-ray an adventure. It is therefore a pleasant surprise to discover that
a catalog title like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle has been given a fairly respectable treatment,
and it's equally pleasant to report that Disney has released a barebones disc without trying to
dress it up with an empty label like "Twentieth Anniversary Release" (which, in fact, this is).
What Blu-ray consumers really want is an accurate transfer, compression without artifacts and
the original soundtrack in lossless format. The rest is gravy. Recommended.
This year, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment will bring over thirty catalog entries to Blu-ray. The scheduled films span across Disney's different distribution branches, and while the studio has previously hinted at certain titles - such as The Color of Money, ...
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