The Stranger in Our Bed

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!

The acting is fine but the plot, the script and the twists are all rather disappointing. It tried too hard and had too many plot holes. Unfortunately it just made me cringe by the end. The twists were not very surprising apart from some in their silliness. I would like to be more charitable but I can't find any redeeming qualities to complete this review with applause.

Having said that, the settings were good with some grandiose locations.

Maybe if the plot had been tweaked a little to make everything more credible (I won't give examples to avoid giving away any aspects of the story) then I might have been able to give it a better score.

Loved the book and so was anxious to see how the film had been adapted....and thankfully really liked it, good acting in the main from Samantha Bond, Emily Berrington and Ben Lloyd Hughes ( only just realised knew him from 'Me Before You' ) very atmospheric, the houses used are amazing, truly amazing, my eyes were all over looking at the things especially in the Manor House, location wise was very watchable and recognised a lot of places, there were unexpected twists in it ( for my other half who hadn't read the book! ) all in all a really good psychological thriller which am pleased stayed very close to the original book.

No pun intended - the movie will not win any originality price ... it is predictable is what I am saying in case that was not clear. And it ties up things way too neatly too - one might get sick by the end of it. It's not all honkey dory (or however you would write that, but you catch my drift) ... but it is an interesting thriller and the actors do try their best (if that is enough for you).

The villain here is quite over the top - but reality has shown us that bad guys can be really simple minded ... and really not care what we think of them .. and act accordingly. So suspend your disbelief and just go with it ... or don't watch this decent low budget effort at all I reckon.

The film is a 15 there are no "gratuitous sex scenes" in fact the sex in this film is some of the least "risqué" i've seen in a long time. You see more in "Emily in paris" or "Sex education" on netflix.

The film itself is a really good British story, acted very well by the actors and delivered in a good pacing. There where a few moments where as a viewer you would yell in your head! "call the police" but these moments i guess are to help drive along the plot.

There is a trigger warning i must offer that if you are affected by domestic violence there are scenes in this that are very well done and realistic and although kept in as good a taste as possible, i can certainly see how someone may be triggered by it.

Over all it was well written, well acted, well edited, FANSTASTIC score and music on all scenes. The Pacing lost itself but the ending was strong with an almost "post credits" type ending.

I am recommending to friends to watch to discuss as its been a while in a sea of blockbusters to find a little gem to talk around the table with a glass of wine!