The Stranger in Our Bed

I've seen Before I Go To Sleep so many times and I just realized that the plot is quite familiar despite having a slightly different setting, backgrounds and motives (the aforementioned film is based on the novel as well). An unhappy married couple, a woman wants to get away with it and uninspiring way to end her misery. That's basically Before I Go To Sleep with wealthy backgrounds, mother in-law intervention and witnessing a crime scene. No big names who starred in this film bar the mother in-law who was Miss Moneypenny in Brosnan-era Bond film. Finding out that the leads are actually married in real life while being abusive and manipulative in this film feels so surreal.

I saw the 9.1 stars (38 people) read all the rave reviews and then found out that most of the 10 stars were one review writers on IMDb. The reviews even sounded alike which was my first clue and why I looked. The other reviews seemed honest, so I think I jinxed myself and expected WAY too much of this movie.

First off - it has a lot gratuitous sex in it. I'm not a prude, but tossing in sex scenes on a formulaic schedule, ruins the flow of the thing.

The story is "second verse same as the first". You have seen this before, BUT it was well done by some really good actors.

I added a star for the supporting cast: Joseph Marcell and Nina Wadia. They were, and always are, awesome, no matter what parts they are playing.

Otherwise, 5 stars on a good day. I wish I had read a good book instead.

I'm extremely keen on watching all kinds of movies in all genres, and at last count I've watched around 30,000 movies. The truth is that this one had a good premise, but surely the screenwriter "forgot" to give some pages to the director and he didn't notice. Or else the editor received an unfair salary and "murdered" the film in the Final Cut ( sorry for the infamous joke ) The "Hitchcockian" touches excited me at first, until I realized it was a cheap copycat that didn't see all of the Master's work from Suspense. The plot has dozens of loose ends, the main actress confuses "indifference" (which she showed in the film) with "I'm confused about what's going on". Don't waste time watching, run away!

Samantha Lee Howe wrote the book the movie is based from which has the same name along with the screenplay apparently even though she is not credited for it.

The writer specialty is Thrillers and claims it is based from a true story which I am still trying to find out what actual story. Either way it hit a nerve especially with women.

It did have some twists that I did not expect along the way and who doesn't like seeing the wealthy having to bicker?

Worth the read or the watch especially if you enjoyed the book.

This movie says the example of why we should not transform each and every single successful book into a movie. I can see how this story would fly in a book, as it resembles to a fairy tale. It's transformation into a movie made it unrealistic. It is really a very slow burn with fewer characters and easily predictable outcomes. We are in 2022, and defining good and bad character since second one is not definitely a good idea. Even the good one, she is jumping into someone else's bed the moment she gets the opportunity to, setting the example of someone who could easily cheat and mislead then expect people to be okay with it. Besides that, the movie is flawed with some unrealistic scenes but still, it is watchable if you truly want to kill some time.