Sliding Doors Review
by Steve Rhodes (srhodes AT ricochet DOT net)April 25th, 1998
SLIDING DOORS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1998 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
SLIDING DOORS takes a what-if look at romance. What are those tiny changes that could have had an immense impact on your love life? Who is that special someone that you could have met but didn't because you entered a crowded room a minute too late or too early? And that tragic time you found your lover in someone's arms, what if you had come home just a bit later and missed seeing them together? This is the promising premise of SLIDING DOORS.
When a little girl walks in front of Helen, played fetchingly but not very convincingly by Gwyneth Paltrow, she just misses her subway train. The picture then backs up time so that Helen just manages to slip through the train's sliding doors. This plot device sets up two parallel universes in which all of the story's characters exist.
In one, Helen walks in on her boyfriend, Gerry, played with his usual doleful eyes by John Lynch from CAL, who is in bed with his old girl friend Lydia. Jeanne Tripplehorn, who was the sexier of the two female leads in BASIC INSTINCT, plays Lydia. For those hoping to see Tripplehorn recreate some of the animal passion she demonstrated in BASIC INSTINCT, you'll be sorry to know that she doesn't. Her scenes are the standard ones, in which she's quickly caught and then promptly jumps out of bed. Helen goes on to meet and fall for a married man named James (John Hannah). James is as gregariously happy as Gerry is inertly melancholy.
In another scenario, Helen comes home just after Lydia has left. She does, however, begin to get suspicious when certain clues to Gerry's affair begin to turn up.
First-time writer and director Peter Howitt uses a bag of old cliches to tell his story. A typically cliched scene that rings false is the one in which Gerry gives his full and complete confession to Helen. She manages to fall completely asleep just as his admission of guilt begins. In another, set after she becomes pregnant, he hangs up on her just as she's about to tell him the big news.
The slowly paced movie switches back and forth between the two scenarios without managing to make either compelling. Rarely effective as a comedy or a romance, the film finally finds its footing towards the end when it dips into pathos.
With its light-hearted spirit, SLIDING DOORS would be a hard film to dislike. On the other hand, if you want more than Paltrow's enchanting smile, you would be advised to look elsewhere.
SLIDING DOORS runs 1:45 but feels longer. It is rated R for sex and mild profanity and would be fine for most teenagers.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
