Someone to Watch Over Me (film)

The film was originally released in the United States on VHS in May 1988 and did better on home video.[9] It was first released on remastered DVD in October 1999 by Sony Pictures with widescreen and full-screen format options, including production notes and theatrical trailers.[10] Shout! Factory released it on Blu-ray under their Shout Select banner on March 12, 2019 including two new extra features, an interview with screenwriter Howard Franklin and an interview with director of photography Steven Poster.[11] Powerhouse Films (Indicator) released the film in the U.K. on limited edition Blu-ray on May 17, 2021 in a 2k restoration containing the aforementioned extras from Shout as well as a new audio commentary from filmmaker and film historian Jim Hemphill and the theatrical trailer.[12]

Someone to Watch Over Me was a box office disappointment bringing in a total of $10,278,549 in a limited run on its theatrical release.[13][14]

In the United States and Canada, it opened at 892 theatres on October 9, 1987, grossing $2.9 million over the four-day Columbus Day weekend, finishing sixth at the box office.[14] On its second weekend, Someone to Watch Over Me made $2,243,204 in 894 theaters (a total of $5.6 million over the ten-day period), rising to fourth. It then made $1.4 million in its third weekend a 38% drop, and $844,336 on its fourth weekend both finishing twelfth. On its fifth and final week, it made $1 million, a 20% increase for a total of $10.3 million.[14]

As of December 2020, Someone to Watch Over Me holds a 65% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews with the consensus stating: "Its plot is sometimes hard to swallow, but some fine acting and director Ridley Scott's stylish visual flair make Someone to Watch Over Me an engaging police thriller".[15]

Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and wrote, "There is something fundamentally wrong with a script in which the hero sleeps with the wrong woman. I am not talking here in moral terms, but in story terms. The makers of this film got so carried away by their High Concept that they missed the point of the whole story." He did, however, praise Lorraine Bracco for playing her role "with great force and imagination."[16] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "Nothing that happens to these three characters is moving or even exciting. To keep the movie going until its absurd ending, the character of the murderer is changed, midstream, from an ordinary, run-of-the-mill New York mobster into a crazed psychotic. Howard Franklin's screenplay plays less like a feature film than like the pilot for a failed television series about New York policemen."[17] Variety called the film "a stylish and romantic police thriller which manages, through the sleek direction of Ridley Scott and persuasive ensemble performances, to triumph over several hard-to-swallow plot developments."[18] John Ferguson of Radio Times awarded it four stars out of five, describing it as an "intelligent thriller" which "remains one of Ridley Scott's most quietly satisfying works". He wrote that "it may lack the power of the director's Gladiator, Thelma & Louise and Blade Runner, but this is still beautifully shot and remains a stylish affair", and he praised the performances as "first rate".[19]

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and called it a "dull thriller" in which the two main characters "are both stiffs as individuals and as a couple. The only lifelike character is the detective's wife (Lorraine Bracco, who steals the movie in a charming supporting role)."[20] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times called the film "an erotic culture-clash thriller that's almost swoony with glamour and romance. The movie is exciting, richly textured. But, despite its high quality, there's something unformed about it, like a poem that doesn't quite sing, a painting with a color missing."[21] Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called it "a reasonably enjoyable romantic thriller" that "shows off director Ridley Scott's extraordinary visual artistry. The sets are so sumptuous, you'll want to move right in. But the haze is so thick, you'll need to bring a defogger. Scott, who directed Alien and Blade Runner, looks at the world through veils of smog. What with these pictorial pollutants, he loses sight of plot."[22] Pauline Kael observed in The New Yorker that Scott "has put so much morbid, finicky care into this silly little story that he's worried the fun out of it."[23]