Peyton's Place

nycritic

Even by 1992, the entire concept of a "person from hell" who "looked angelic" was old, dead, and begging to live a life of quiet retirement somewhere in La La Land. However, Curtis Hanson, a director who after this would move on to one more suspense movie, THE RIVER WILD, before cementing his status in Hollywood as a powerhouse director capable of telling acute stories in any genre, had in his hands an okay story. What he did with it, is something else.

Two women are unknowingly at the heart of a tragedy when one of them, Claire, gets touched inappropriately by her gynecologist and suffers an asthma attack. She sues, he commits suicide, and his wife suffers a miscarriage. But she's decided not to let matters heal by themselves. No. Peyton Flanders has more up her sleeve than anyone will imagine. She's going to make Claire's life a living hell. And take over her life, her husband, and her little baby.

So off she goes to the Bartel household in Perfect Suburbia, and manages to get herself hired as their nanny. Of course, she's so absolutely sweet; she basically is a walking ad for Stepford niceness. Anyone would have a go at her as a nanny, or anything else. Andrea Yates, move aside. Peyton is in the house.

What Claire and Michael (Matt McCoy) don't know is that little by little, Peyton is taking over the house. (It's always like this: the targets never know they're in danger until the water is up to their neck and rising quite rapidly.) And it's little things. The baby seems to be happier with Peyton than with Claire, but that's okay, apparently she has a good hand with babies. Then again, the nursery has been changed and looks surprisingly like another nursery. Of course, anyone who has seen through Peyton's charm might be well advised not to walk into the family greenhouse. Or leave aspirators unattended. Marlene (Julianne Moore, then unknown), a family friend, warns Michael on Peyton, but it leads to more confusion.

Rebecca De Mornay never had a role as good as this one and never has had one since. With Peyton she could have even garnered an Oscar nod, but maybe it wasn't her time. All she could hope for is that audiences see her controlled features, always ready for a smile, hiding an insane rage that explodes in one spellbinding sequence as she destroys a bathroom -- such is the intensity of the hatred her character feels towards Claire who only reported an incident, not knowing it would lead to this.

Annabella Sciorra has an equally difficult role to do because her character is the victim. There's an elegance in the way she reads her lines -- she comes across as very poised -- and her way of playing into the rising disquiet within Claire is pretty keen. It's the first of a short cycle of roles she would play where she would be the victim; here, however, she is first-rate, the camera loves showing her from different angles as if observing her go from calm to progressively worked up to all-out insane.

Curtis Hanson has made an excellent, sharp thriller that rises well above the trashy material that it originates from. It's easy to forget the "coincidence" involving the two women, and as I've stated before, it would have been best not to explain or show the real meaning behind a person's rage, but have it exist, making that person even creepier. Even so, Hanson constructs his movie carefully, never allowing for any "Boo!" moments to come through until the moment when events lead to graphic violence make way for a couple of them, even then controlled. THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE manages, in this way, to be a compelling, clever watch even when there are times it shouldn't be.

score 8/10

nycritic 15 June 2006

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1394035/