Sliding Doors

This film is a lightweight comedy/drama with a unique story. Although Gwyneth Paltrow plays the same character in both aspects of the story, both Helens seem completely different. The flow of the story seems quite natural and the cast does a wonderful job going through the twists and turns of their characters lives. It's a chick flick with none of the sap.

Very well made with a nice witty script and a decent pace so it doesn't get bogged down too much. It does look slightly dated though, but that's mostly to do with things like fashion and technology.

I must admit I did find the premise of this film quite interesting; how just a couple of seconds at a crucial moment can make drastic changes to a life did intrigue me. I did enjoy the way it was done but ultimately it is about feelings and relationships which is fine as far as it goes. It did leave me with a few questions by the end and I see that as a good thing; there were certain things open to interpretation and any film that does that is always going to be worth a look, in my view. I will admit I did enjoy it up to a point; I found the characters quite engaging, there is some great dialogue and I even recognised one or two of the tunes! Over all, worth a look but I feel its one of those I'll only watch once (although I've been wrong about that before).

SteelMonster's verdict: RECOMMENDED

My score: 7.2/10

You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

One morning, on arrival at her PR company, Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) finds out that she has just been sacked. She's on her way home and then she misses the tube train.

But what if she made it? She meets James (John Hannah) on the train, who's sitting right next to her and who's a friendly and witty man. When Helen gets home, she sees her boyfriend, Gerry (John Lynch) in bed with his ex-girlfriend, Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and Helen quickly ends her relationship with Gerry and forms a new, loving one with James.

The other possibility is that, Helen misses the train, gets robbed and a nasty cut, goes to hospital and by the time she arrives at home Gerry is already in the shower. Helen then gets a sandwich job and a waitressing job in order to support her loser boyfriend who is supposed to be writing his first novel but in fact has been cheating on her.

As the ending approaches, the story becomes unpredictable and it leaves you wonder why it has to go this way. The ending is likewise enigmatic. Heartily recommended.

This caveat should be posted every month or so... you will be confused if you dont give it all your attention.

If you havent got the idea by now, the movie intercuts between two plot flows.

It's an excellent Paltrow exhibition, and not overly smarmy.... and I suppose the Comedy referred to in the classification is meant to be "Human Comedy"

The cast is excellent, the editing is very good - considering the scenario.

I dont care for the ending but sometimes life takes those turns.

Guys.. you had better have your life in order, and be beyond suspicion, to be watching this with your wife or GF.

I am so enamored with this kind of film. How many people have asked the question after having an accident or chanced upon something, "If I had only left a minute later, none of this would have happened." Now we get into the who time continuum thing and parallel universes. I know this isn't a science fiction film, although a Twilight Zone episode may have fun with this plot. When we are dealing with the characters colliding through the fourth dimension, a whole different set of circumstances are put in motion. The reason we can never travel back in time (while forward is possible) is that time would then become mutable and what we are may no longer be and then we wouldn't travel back in time. Two roads diverge in a woods paraphrasing Robert Frost, but what if we could take each of those roads and see what happens. This movie is quite magical and does the best it can to get Gwyneth Paltrow through her parallel universes and see the things that one would see. I think the problem is that unless we get into quantum physics, it's hard for the average person to really reconcile these sorts of events. I thought the acting was very good and believe things as they unfurled. I would recommend this film if you like to think about the possibilities it envisions. Try it on yourself sometime and extrapolate your own existence from some fork in the road and imagine what may have been.