Sleeping with the Enemy

Sleeping with the Enemy is a 1991 American psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin, and Kevin Anderson. The film is based on Nancy Price's 1987 novel of the same name. Roberts plays a woman who fakes her own death and moves from Cape Cod to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to escape her controlling, obsessive, and abusive husband, but finds her peaceful new life interrupted when he discovers her actions and tracks her down. Sleeping with the Enemy was released theatrically by 20th Century Fox on February 8, 1991. It received generally negative reviews from critics, but it was a box-office success, grossing $175 million on a production budget of $19 million. The film also broke the record at the time for the highest domestic opening for a film with a female lead, grossing $13 million on its opening weekend and surpassing the previous record held by Aliens, which grossed $10 million in its first weekend.