The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (R)
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Caution: spoilers!

This came out in 1992, and I definitely saw it at one point in the 90s, though I don't recall if it was on TV or VHS or what. I'm writing my review in 2025 after watching it again, on the day that a remake was released on Hulu. I didn't remember too much about the plot, and in fact there were some plot points that surprised me, early on. But there were also some things I did kind of remember. Also, the only actor that I definitely remembered being in the movie was John de Lancie, despite his role being very small. (Probably I just found it so novel to see him playing someone other than Q, from Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

So, there's this housewife named Claire Bartel (Annabella Sciorra), who is married to a guy named Michael (Matt McCoy). They have a young daughter named Emma (Madeline Zima), and Claire is pregnant with their second child. They hire a mentally disabled handyman named Solomon (Ernie Hudson) to build them a new fence. He soon bonds with Emma, so after he's finished with the fence, they keep him around for other projects. One day, Claire is getting an exam from her new obstetrician, Dr. Victor Mott (de Lancie), and he sexually molests her. He does it in such a casual way that Claire isn't entirely sure she's right, but Michael convinces her that they should report Dr. Mott. They don't file charges against him, but after she reports him, some other women come forward with similar claims, and they do file charges. So, Dr. Mott kills himself. Because of the impending cases against him, his assets are frozen, leaving his pregnant widow (Rebecca De Mornay) with nothing. Soon after that, she loses her unborn baby. And she blames Claire for all of this. (One thing I remembered about the movie was the molestation, but I somehow forgot that the doctor killed himself, and that De Mornay's character was his wife, and that she lost her own baby. It's strange, because not knowing those things makes what comes next seem completely random and psychotic.)

Six months later, after their son Joe has been born, Claire and Michael are looking to hire a nanny to look after Joe and Emma, since Claire will be busy building a greenhouse on their lawn. She meets a prospective nanny named Peyton, who unbeknownst to her is actually Dr. Mott's widow. Peyton seems very nice, and bonds with Emma, to a degree that Claire starts to feel Emma has become a bit distant with her. Peyton also secretly breastfeeds Joe, which makes him stop accepting Claire's milk. Throughout the film, Peyton does all sorts of things to surreptitiously mess with Claire's life, like trying to drive a wedge between her and Michael. One day, Solomon sees Peyton breastfeeding Joe, and to prevent him from telling the Bartels, she frames him for molesting Emma, and they fire him. But he still considers the family his friends, and secretly watches over them from a distance. Claire and Michael also have friends named Marlene (Julianne Moore) and Marty, and after Peyton learns that Marlene used to be Michael's girlfriend before he met Claire, she does things to make Claire suspect Michael and Marlene are having an affair. That scheme ultimately fails, but not before Claire causes a rift between herself and Marlene.

Later, Marlene discovers that Peyton is really Mott's widow, and goes to tell Claire, but she isn't home, and Peyton uses a trap she had previously set for Claire in the greenhouse to kill Marlene. At this point, Peyton starts getting desperate to enact her endgame, and tries to kill Claire, who has asthma, by emptying her inhalers. But Claire survives, and upon investigating Marlene's death, discovers the evidence Marlene had found of Peyton's true identity. She confronts Peyton, who tries to kill Claire and Michael, planning to abduct Emma and Joe to raise as her own children. But in the end, despite causing some serious injuries, Peyton fails, and there's a happy ending for everyone.

Whew, I have said too much. But I don't know what more I could leave out. Anyway, I thought it was a fairly good movie. At least, it's better than I remembered it being, so I'm definitely glad to have rewatched it. I liked all the acting, and most of the characters, and found the story suitably suspenseful. It does get a bit psycho, because I think by the end Peyton may have actually believed herself to be Emma and Joe's mother, at least on some level. And I guess I don't know what else to say. It's just a fairly effective, slow-burn thriller, with an interesting story and motivations.