Enid Is Sleeping Movie Review

When I first saw About Last Night in 1986, I was enormously impressed by the quirky talent of a young actress named Elizabeth Perkins. In 1988, she made Big and Sweet Hearts Dance, both so saturated by cutesy concepts that she tended to get lost in the proceedings. Then there was 1986's From the Hip, 1993's Indian Summer, and 1995's Moonlight and Valentino in which she was even MORE lost, PLUS 1991's He Said, She Said, more cutesy conceptual crap. Just when it seemed like Perkins was stuck in a conventional leading lady rut, she made a little-heralded black comedy with Judge Reinhold, 1990's Enid Is Sleeping. Since it came along not long after 1989's Weekend at Bernie's and may have seemed to share the same concept, Enid might easily have died an unfair death, except for one thing. Perkins and director Maurice Phillips rescued the badly edited film from the ailing studio that ordered the cuts and assembled the film as THEY wanted it to be shown. The delightful results have been retitled Over Her Dead Body. Maureen Mueller IS Enid, the sister from Hell. June (Perkins) is her little sister who has been having an affair with Enid's husband (Reinhold), a cop in a sleepy Southwestern town. Enid surprises them in bed, one thing leads to another, and the rest of the movie shows how June tries to get rid of Enid. The hilarious script gets astonishing mileage out of the dumbest cast of characters you can possibly imagine. Reinhold's character continues his daily routine with his partner Jeffrey Jones, who watches too many movies along the lines of Beverly Hills Cop. When he's actually confronted with violence, he's filled with panic and nausea. Rhea Perlman is their ditzy dispatcher. Meanwhile, Perkins brilliantly runs the full gamut of emotional distress as she tries to deal with Enid and every lowlife in the Southwest, including Michael J. Pollard. I've seldom laughed at a video as much as I did with Over Her Dead Body, and although most outlets won't have 128 copies of this sleeper, it's well worth searching for, anyway. Perkins went on to break hearts in 1991's The Doctor and to pick up (hopefully) fat paychecks for The Flintstones and Miracle on 34th Street in 1994. What, and give up show business? Make your own movie, Elizabeth! If you can work wonders rescuing Enid, you can work miracles with an indie that's yours from opening to closing credits! AKA: Over Her Dead Body.

1990 (R) 105m/C Elizabeth Perkins, Judge Reinhold, Rhea Perlman, Maureen Mueller, Jeffrey Jones, Michael J. Pollard; D: Maurice Phillips; W: Maurice Phillips; C: Alfonso Beato. VHS