‘The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world...’
Due to the With Gourley and Rust podcast doing a deep dive into the yuppie nightmare genre, I’ve been revisiting or watching for the first time a number of ’90s domestic thrillers. It was a short-lived, but prolific subgenre that was over by the time the decade came to an end. The Hand that Rocks the Cradle is a little less wacky than some of the other leading lights of the genre, but its subtlety also ensures that it stands out from the crowd…
As with the setup to all of these yuppie nightmare films, Claire (Annabella Sciorra) and Michael Bartel (Matt McCoy) live a perfect cosy life until an interloper invades their home and ruins everything. In this case, that interloper is the devious nanny Peyton Flanders (Rebecca De Mornay).
The home is supposed to be an enclave of comfort. The last bastion of safety and solace. When that security is threatened, it causes great consternation – doubly so if a child is involved. The Hand that Rocks the Cradle plays on those fears wonderfully and director Curtis Hanson, working from a script credited to Amanda Silver, knows just how to exploit our greatest dread.
Hanson’s cast elevates the material with Sciorra and McCoy convincing as a happily married couple, with the former also performing a panic-inducing impression of having an asthma attack. Having said that, this film belongs to De Mornay in a career-defining performance that is both chilling and somehow sympathetic. Peyton Flanders is a wonderful cinematic creation and it is a testament to all involved that her story is told with such style and panache. Throw in a couple of supporting roles for Julianne Moore and Ernie Hudson and you are left with something truly special.
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle is not the most bombastic or well-known of the ’90s domestic thrillers, but it is one of the best. A triumph.