Michael (Matt McCoy) and Claire Bartel (Annabella Sciorra) take on mentally handicapped Solomon (Ernie Hudson) to build the fence. They have a girl and she's pregnant with their second. She is molested by her new doctor Victor Mott (John de Lancie). She reports him along with other women and he shoots himself before the trial. Mott's pregnant wife (Rebecca De Mornay) loses her family wealth and her baby. Mrs. Mott vows revenge on Claire and becomes her nanny as Peyton Flanders. Claire's friend Marlene (Julianne Moore) warns her as Mrs. Mott wage a secret campaign against Claire.

This is probably more scary for parents and especially mothers. This is simply geared more towards that demographic. For others, it needs something more than this straight forward thriller. I think it would be more compelling to start the movie with De Mornay as a mysterious woman. Claire can uncover her history along with the audience. De Mornay is pretty good with a restrained intensity and volcanic outbursts. This is a bit too slow but there is just enough tension.

The potentially interesting theme of this story - a nanny integrates herself into a family to get revenge for the suicide of her husband - is wasted due to some flat direction and clichéd situations which threaten to sink the thing as a whole. Thankfully there are some good moments in this mess, but otherwise it's all a bit obvious and easy to foretell. In some ways it feels like a television movie, due to the fact that there's plenty of sugary sentimentalism, and it could have been a lot tougher.

Ultimately, though, the film comes across as a bit of a disappointment due to the excellent reception it received when released in cinemas. I should think that good films were few and far between back in '92, and the public lapped up anything that was halfway decent, such as this. Rebecca De Mornay gives a very good performance as the psychopath from hell, nicely subtle too, well that is until the over the top finale where she gets to wield a spade and break legs. Annabella Sciorra just annoyed me though, coming across as a) an idiot and b) very weak indeed. And I was sick of her asthma attacks by the end of the film. Matt McCoy is okay as the husband, but is given little to do, and it's Ernie Hudson (GHOSTBUSTERS) who shines as a mentally-handicapped handyman, who couldn't hurt a fly, yet gets blamed for harbouring sexual thoughts about the young daughter. Thankfully he sticks around and comes through at the end. Julianne Moore makes the most of her appearance as a feisty old flame of the husband, while STAR TREK's John De Lancie is the creepy perverted doctor.

While there are a few good suspenseful set pieces (the greenhouse scene being one of them), and lots of clever little mystery twists, unfortunately it all comes across as polished yet flawed, due to the family-orientated, over sentimental script. THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE is good fun, but not the film that it might have been, or, indeed, that you might hope it to be.

THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE is one of the most popular of the psycho thrillers that overloaded cinemas in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the wake of FATAL ATTRACTION. It's up there with the best of its kind, despite a simplistic storyline and some overblown sentimentality at times. The predictability isn't a problem when the story is so much fun.

Rebecca De Mornay is perfectly cast as the ice-cold nanny who integrates herself into an ordinary suburban family to right some old-time wrongs. The rest of the cast are good, even if their characters end up being flat, with the stand-out none other than Ernie Hudson as the handyman whose presence acts as the film's dramatic lynchpin.

Curtis Hanson wrote and directed a lot of interesting thrillers during his career and this is another feather in his cap. The film feels old-fashioned, Hitchcockian in fact, and delightfully cinematic. You can guess what's going to happen from beginning to end, but it's the little touches, the psychological games and twists, that really make it zing.