Line #40 Film/TheHandThatRocksTheCradle


1	![[Administrivia/SpoilersOff All spoilers will be unmarked ahead]]. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
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3	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_hand_that_rocks_the_cradle.jpg]]
4	[[caption-width-right:310:''"[[TitleDrop The hand that rocks the cradle]] is the hand that rules the world."'' ]]
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6	''The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'' is a 1992 thriller film directed by Creator/CurtisHanson and written by Amanda Silver (''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'', ''Film/JurassicWorld''). It centers on a vengeful nanny who schemes to destroy a naïve woman and steal her family from her.
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8	Claire Bartel (Creator/AnnabellaSciorra) is pregnant with her second child. At a routine checkup, Claire is molested by her new obstetrician, Dr. Victor Mott (Creator/JohnDeLancie), and after Claire tells her husband Michael (Creator/MattMcCoy), the couple decide to report the incident to the authorities. Four more women come forward to corroborate the Bartels' story, and Dr. Mott commits suicide to avoid being arrested.
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10	Dr. Mott's pregnant widow (Creator/RebeccaDeMornay) ends up losing their child from the stress of her husband's suicide as well as the ensuing financial fallout. Blaming her for her woes, Mrs. Mott vows revenge against Claire. Six months later, she begins going by the alias "Peyton Flanders", with Claire and Michael hiring her to be their two children's nanny while unaware of her true identity. From that point on, Mrs. Mott covertly works to destroy the Bartel family.
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12	----
13	!!This film contains examples of:
14	* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Mrs. Mott learns of Claire's identity through a news report. It's not specifically shown that Claire had come forth publicly, and most jurisdictions have regulations against publicly identifying sexual assault victims. Oddly enough, this could have been avoided had the movie established that Mrs. Mott had only heard about Claire from her husband.
15	* AssholeVictim: Besides Mrs. Mott, nobody is really going to miss Dr. Mott.
16	* AsthmaPeril: Mrs. Mott, who has gotten a job as Claire's nanny as part of a vengeful plan, weaponizes this. First she empties all of Claire's inhalers. Then she turns Claire's greenhouse into a death trap that kills Claire's best friend and makes sure that Claire finds the body. The stress triggers an asthma attack as planned and Claire nearly suffocates to death, needing hospitalization.
17	%%* AxCrazy: Mrs. Mott.
18	* BabysitterFromHell: Mrs. Mott, a psycho nanny who is actually the widow of the disgraced obstetrician.
19	%% * BaitTheDog: Mrs. Mott when she attacks Emma's bully.
20	* BeautyIsBad: Mrs. Mott ''again''. Despite being very attractive herself, Marlene appears to dislike and distrust her instantly for no other reason than how she looks--and she's not even dressed up at the time!
21	* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Dr. Mott avoids being arrested for molestation by shooting himself.
22	* BigBad: Mrs. Mott poses as "Peyton Flanders" in order to exact revenge against Claire.
23	%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: Mrs. Mott, naturally.
24	%%* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Mrs. Mott, Claire, and Marlene.
25	* BrokenBird: Subverted. Mrs. Mott is seen heartbroken and devastated in a hospital after her emergency hysterectomy, but her grief quickly turns her into the AxCrazy "Peyton".
26	* ChekhovsGun: Several.
27	** The wind chimes at both houses.
28	** The blue turtles on the walls of both nurseries.
29	** The baby monitor, which saved the baby. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Mrs. Mott had used it throughout the movie to eavesdrop on the Bartels]].
30	** Claire's asthma. After repeated attacks throughout the film, she ''fakes'' one in order to throw Mrs. Mott off guard.
31	%% * ChekhovsGunman: Solomon.
32	* ContrastMontage: Mrs. Mott undergoing an emergency hysterectomy while watching her prematurely born baby die is intercut with scenes of a pregnant Claire and her family enjoying their day.
33	* ConvenientMiscarriage: Kicks off Mrs. Mott's sinister plot.
34	* CreepyPhysical: Dr. Mott molests Claire during a physical examination.
35	* CrusadingWidow: Mrs. Mott is grief-stricken over the deaths of her husband and their child, which drives her to seek revenge against Claire for the destruction of her life.
36	%% * DeadpanSnarker: Marlene.
37	* DeathGlare:
38	** Mrs. Mott gives one to [[ObliviouslyEvil the attorney who politely tries to help her get out of her seat]].
39	** Later on, she gives two of these to Solomon. The first time happens when he accidentally gets paint on her blouse while shaking her hand, revealing a little bit of her [[BitchInSheepsClothing true colors]]. However, she reverts back to [[FauxAffablyEvil a very friendly persona and tells Solomon "that it was an accident and that anyone can have an accident."]] The second time happens after she slaps him for accidentally witnessing her breastfeed Joey.
40	* DeathOfAChild: Mrs. Mott's premature baby is unable to survive. Subverted with Claire's baby Joey, whom Mrs. Mott nearly smothers before thinking better of it and instead deciding to take over Claire's life.
41	* DestinationDefenestration: How Mrs. Mott dies at the end.
42	* DirtyCoward: Dr. Mott would rather take his own life than face the consequences of his actions, not even caring how such a drastic act might affect his pregnant wife.
43	* DisneyVillainDeath: Literally since this ''is'' in fact a Disney movie (via their Creator/HollywoodPictures division). Downplayed overall since we do see where they land: a picket fence. Noted in ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'''s satire "The Ham That Robs The Cradle"[[hottip:*: ironically, Rebecca [=DeMornay=]'s performance is free of ChewingTheScenery]]:
44	--> "Is this fence to keep people out... or keep people in?"
45	--> "Neither! It's to [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impale people on]], but you don't have to worry about that for at least three pages!"
46	* DrivenToSuicide: Dr. Mott [[AteHisGun shoots himself]] after it is revealed he has been sexually abusing his female patients for years.
47	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Mrs. Mott can't go through with her initial plan of murdering Joey.
48	* EvilDetectingBaby: Inverted. Joey wails when his own mother holds him, but quiets down in Mrs. Mott's arms. Then again, he ''was'' getting Mrs. Mott's breast milk.
49	* EvilGloating: Mrs. Mott gloats to Solomon after he accidentally witnesses her breastfeeding Joey and does it again to Claire when she seemingly has her at her mercy during an "asthma attack".
50	%% * TheFakeCutie: Mrs. Mott.
51	* FauxAffablyEvil: While acting as "Peyton Flanders", Mrs. Mott pretends to be a helpful, nice, and considerate woman who has a very understanding and gentle aura to her. In truth, she's sadistic, bitter, and spitefully angry.
52	* FieryRedhead: Marlene
53	* FirstGirlWins: Averted. During a chat with Mrs. Mott, Claire reveals that Marlene was Michael's FirstLove. Armed with this information and Claire's lingering insecurity about it, this becomes yet another thing Mrs. Mott uses to her advantage.
54	* FirstLove: Marlene was Michael's first love.
55	* FrameUp: Knowing that he's on to her, Mrs. Mott considers it convenient to get rid of Solomon, so she steals the panties of her employer's five-year-old daughter and plants them in his toolbox. With this "evidence" in place, she starts accusing him of pedophilia, and Claire eventually fires him.
56	* FreudianExcuse: Mrs. Mott wants revenge against Claire because she holds her responsible for ruining her life by reporting her husband to the police, which led to his suicide, the death of their baby, her hysterectomy, and the loss of their home and assets. She also apparently had no major parental figures in her childhood and had to do most of the work herself, which can partially account for both her [[BrokenBird emotional fragility]] and [[TheSociopath lack of regard for right and wrong]].
57	* FromNobodyToNightmare: Mrs. Mott transforms from a wealthy obstetrician's wife into a homicidal schemer who calls herself "Peyton Flanders".
58	* GambitRoulette: Mrs. Mott's plot to ruin Claire's life essentially boils down to being this.
59	* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Inverted with Mrs. Mott, who is a dangerous and unhinged villainess [[BitchInSheepsClothing hiding behind a veil of fake niceness]].
60	* HateSink: Subverted with Mrs. Mott due to her [[FreudianExcuse sympathetic background]]. Putting that aside, just ''look'' at some of her facial expressions and body language in scenes where she's in the midst of setting up Claire, and you might be wishing she had more than a punch to the face coming when she gets kicked out. The [[LackOfEmpathy asthma emptying scene in particular shows her in a very unfriendly light]].
61	* IdiotBall:
62	** Marlene holds it firmly in her hands when she reveals to Mrs. Mott that she knows who she is, prompting Mrs. Mott to lure her to her death. It's especially bad considering that she's been suspicious of "Peyton" from the moment they met.
63	** Michael picks it up later on by going downstairs to check on the loud radio music coming from Mrs. Mott's room. '''Run like hell!''' He gets a concussion and both legs broken for his trouble.
64	* InspirationallyDisadvantaged[=/=]MagicalNegro: Solomon. Mentally handicapped, yet a skilled carpenter and suspicious of "Peyton" as well, and even after being fired (thanks to Mrs. Mott convincing Claire that he's molesting her daughter Emma), he continues to hang around the house, ultimately playing a key role in saving the family during the final confrontation.
65	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Marlene can be very abrasive and some what condescending, but she clearly cares about Michael and Claire. When she discovers that "Peyton" is actually Dr. Mott’s widow, she drives recklessly through traffic to warn Claire about her nanny's true colors. [[WoundedGazelleGambit Sadly, Mrs. Mott tricks her into getting herself killed by using reverse psychology on her.]]
66	* KickTheDog: Mrs. Mott slaps Solomon and calls him "retard" even ''before'' she frames him for molesting Emma.
67	* KindheartedSimpleton: Justified with Solomon. He is clearly special needs, but he has his heart in the right place.
68	* LackOfEmpathy: ''Good lord''. Any doubts of Mrs. Mott showing even just a ''little sense'' of being morally empathetic by her own immoral actions are tossed right out the window when she is [[spoiler:smiling at herself in a mirror and humming in a joyful tone while ''emptying out all of Claire's asthma inhalers'']]. Not to mention this was right after she didn't have much of a reaction to [[spoiler: witnessing Marlene's death at her hands]].
69	* LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek: Typical of the genre, with a weak and ineffectual heroine suffering from asthma fighting a stronger, prettier, and more cunning villainess who wants to destroy her family as revenge.
70	* MamaBear: Claire is this in full force once she discovers who "Peyton" really is. Strangely enough, Mrs. Mott shows signs of this when she attacks the kid who's been bullying Emma.
71	* ManipulativeBastard: Mrs. Mott.
72	* MisplacedRetribution: Instead of putting the blame on her [[TakeAThirdOption deceased]] husband for ruining her life through his own despicable actions, Mrs. Mott goes after one of his victims who reported him to the police.
73	* MissingMom: Mrs. Mott reveals to Emma that she had to take care of herself for most of her life because her mother died when she was young.
74	* MistakenForCheating: Claire discovers Marlene's cigarette lighter in the pocket of Michael's pants, not knowing that Mrs. Mott has planted it there. Between this and the several nights that he has supposedly been working late, she wrongly concludes they've been having an affair and confronts him about it by screaming her head off at him. Claire doesn't know that an entire room full of party guests is there to celebrate her birthday--their sneaking around was to get inside the Bartel residence unnoticed.
75	* MistakenForPedophile: Solomon falls victim to this thanks to Mrs. Mott's manipulation and planting of "evidence".
76	* MsFanservice:
77	** Mrs. Mott in her see-through nightgown while getting ice at night and when she tries to seduce Michael into having sex with her while he's grieving for Marlene and worried about Claire. It's helped by the fact she’s portrayed by Rebecca De Mornay.
78	** Marlene is also very dazzling. It helps that she's played by Julianne Moore.
79	* NoFullNameGiven: Assuming Mrs. Mott's first name isn't actually "Peyton," we only ever learn her surname.
80	* ObliviouslyEvil: The attorney who calmly informs the heavily pregnant Mrs. Mott that the court is taking all of her remaining assets and she’s being kicked out of her own house in light of all the pending lawsuits from her late husband's victims has the audacity to politely offer to help her out of her chair.
81	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Mrs. Mott not only lost her husband, her money, and her home, but miscarried her unborn baby - and thanks to the resulting hysterectomy, she can’t have another.
82	* PoliceAreUseless: Despite telling the police that someone may have MURDERED their friend, stalked them, framed another friend, and used a breast pump to feed a kid who isn't hers (which would probably be some form of assault of a minor), the police label it "not an emergency situation" and take their sweet time heading over. It doesn't help that Claire and Michael deal with the situation on their own, kicking Mrs. Mott out when the cops definitely should have been escorting her.
83	* UsefulNotes/TheOtherRainforest: The film is set in Seattle.
84	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Mrs. Mott calls Solomon a "retard".
85	* PlayingPossum: During the final confrontation in the film's climax, Claire fakes an asthma attack.
86	* SecondLove: Claire admits to Mrs. Mott that she is this to Michael, as Marlene was his FirstLove.
87	* ShowerOfAngst: Claire takes one after her disturbing visit to Dr. Mott.
88	* TheSociopath: Even though she's more of a misguided and tragic villain than outright evil, it's very hard to believe that losing her family and wealth over another woman's allegations of her husband being a sexual abuser is what made Mrs. Mott into a {{Consummate Liar}} and {{Manipulative Bastard}}. An early scene shows her being aggressively hostile and speaking vulgar language to "protect" Emma from a boy who bullied her ''on school grounds''. This was something that had nothing to do with her actual revenge against Claire in itself, which suggested that Mott wasn't the nicest person to begin with.
89	* SurpriseParty: Mrs. Mott planted the idea for throwing such a party in Michael's head, knowing it won't go well thanks to her own machinations.
90	* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The good-looking Motts -- he was a sexually abusive pervert using his position as an obstetrician to molest women, while she becomes a vengeful and scheming madwoman.
91	* TitleDrop: The full quote is referenced by Marlene at a party, unaware to Mott rocking the cradle at home.
92	* TookALevelInBadass: After seeing her mother being attacked, Emma outsmarts Mrs. Mott and locks her in the nursery, rescuing Joey at the same time. As an added bonus, you can practically feel the intensity with which she yells "YOU'RE NOT MY MOMMY!"
93	* TragicVillain: While Mrs. Mott is a vindictive and homicidal lunatic, one must not forget what turned her into such a monster in the first place.
94	* TraumaCongaLine: Mrs. Mott gets this in spades. Within a very short timespan, her husband shoots himself, she is branded the wife of a serial molester (which she possibly only just found out), has all her assets frozen, gets kicked out of her own house, and suffers a late-term miscarriage that leads to an emergency hysterectomy. It's little wonder she becomes AxCrazy as soon as she recovers.
95	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Michael advising Claire to go to the police after being molested by Dr. Mott (even though they had every right to do so) causes a chain of events that leads to Mrs. Mott infiltrating their home and wreaking havoc.
96	%% * UnwittingPawn: Claire.
97	* VillainProtagonist: Mrs. Mott is arguably the focus of the film despite being its BigBad.
98	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Mrs. Mott. While there's no excuse for her actions, would she really have done all that had she not simultaneously lost her husband, unborn child, and presumably everything else?
99	* WouldHurtAChild:
100	** In one scene, Mrs. Mott is shown to be intending to fatally smother Joey with a pillow, but it's subverted when she decides instead to breastfeed him so that he rejects Claire's breast milk.
101	** She also manhandles the hell out of a bratty little boy who was bullying Emma [[BaitTheDog to the sheer delight of the other kids on the playground]].
102	* {{Yandere}}: Implied to be the case with Mrs. Mott. [[SkewedPriorities She stands up for her husband even after finding out what a dirty scumbag he was]], and tries to take the kids and start a new life with them in the climax.
103	* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith: Claire warns Michael point blank exactly just how dangerous Mrs. Mott is, and he painfully finds out that it's true.

Context Film / TheHandThatRocksTheCradle