The Rich Man's Wife is a 1996 American thriller film written and directed by Amy Holden Jones and starring Halle Berry.
Berry plays the title character is Josie Potenza, the trophy wife of workaholic Hollywood producer Tony Potenza, but their marriage is crumbling due to his increased drinking resulting from stress at work. She becomes a suspect when her husband is murdered and the investigating detectives are suspicious of her alibi.
This film features examples of:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Josie is revealed to have been the one responsible for her husband's death all along; and she also gets rid of the man she hired to kill her husband. She gets away with it, because the police have no evidence to arrest her.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Tony's cheating is portrayed as bad, while Josie's is as her seeking comfort from an unhappy marriage. Not to mention both of her lovers turning out to be bad guys, something she clearly didn't anticipate.
- I Never Told You My Name: Josie is being terrorized by her husband's killer, who is demanding an exorbitant sum of money from her and threatening to frame her for her husband's death to the police. She goes running to her ex-lover Jake, pleading for his help. He calms her down, assuring her that "Cole won't hurt you." She's grateful, until she suddenly realizes that she never told him the man's name - Jake hired the man to kill her husband so that Josie would come back to him.
- The Reveal: When Josie is picked up by Nora, Jake's estranged wife We learn that they were working together to get rid of their husbands.
- Trophy Wife: Better looking and much younger than Tony, Josie is a classic example of this.
