So speaking of early ’90s family-centric thrillers, here we are with this story about a woman getting her revenge on another woman by becoming her nanny, and then trying to take over her life.

Where the movie is effective is in its evocation of pretty white lady power. She seems sweet and innocent, and so everyone trusts and likes her by default. Early on while she’s being creepy, she doesn’t take direct action, but just insinuates things. “Oh, I thought…” or whatever, and that’s enough to get things rolling. The subtlety and deniability of it all makes it horrifying in a weird way.

But as the movie goes along, and she starts setting up explicit traps, it becomes somewhat less interesting; and by the time one character susses out what she’s up to, it feels like the movie should be approaching its climactic moment, but it’s actually still well away from that. The end result is a movie that feels like 20 minutes longer than it should be. Restructure a few events, cut out some medium-unimportant stuff, and you’d have a way better movie.

But it would still be a movie with the Solomon character, who is the intellectually disabled Black guy who does some work for the family, and then gets intertwined with their drama in some bullshit ways and ends up saving the day kinda out of nowhere. It is impossible to imagine anyone writing this character in 2022.

(Also: Just like that Julia Roberts “faked your own death” movie, this is one that you couldn’t make today just because everyone these days uses IDs and background checks and what-not. The past was definitely friendlier to people who wanted to give themselves new identities.)

Not terrible, but not really recommended.