Sliding Doors is a 1998 romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Howitt and starring Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah, while also featuring John Lynch, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Virginia McKenna. The film alternates between two storylines, showing two paths the central character's life could take depending on whether or not she catches a train.
I won't lie, this film has one of the most intriguing plots I've read in a long time. The film flows between two alternate timelines, one where the lead catches her train and the other she doesn't. Gwyneth is a likeable lead as Helen but her husband is a babbling, schizophrenic irritating character as is her alternate love interest, a complete annoyance of a character, constantly quoting Monty Python in one too many scenes, which gets old fast.
With two unlikable love interests I found the film gets a little bogged down in the middle to end, Helen takes far too long in the alternate universe to realise her husband is cheating and not enough time is spent on the repercussions of this. The film also relies far too much on outdated and cheesy romantic-comedy clichés with an eye-rolling inducing scene in the last half of her and the love interest arguing in the rain.
Sliding Doors is not a bad film by any means but I wish either timeline went in a slightly different and more engaging direction. I found the film wasn't as gripping as it thought it was and relied too much on stale tropes of the genre. A good performance from Gwen and the film almost won me back with "Thank You" by Dido playing over the credits, but it was too late. It's worth a look, but I won't be going in for another watch.
I won't lie, this film has one of the most intriguing plots I've read in a long time. The film flows between two alternate timelines, one where the lead catches her train and the other she doesn't. Gwyneth is a likeable lead as Helen but her husband is a babbling, schizophrenic irritating character as is her alternate love interest, a complete annoyance of a character, constantly quoting Monty Python in one too many scenes, which gets old fast.
With two unlikable love interests I found the film gets a little bogged down in the middle to end, Helen takes far too long in the alternate universe to realise her husband is cheating and not enough time is spent on the repercussions of this. The film also relies far too much on outdated and cheesy romantic-comedy clichés with an eye-rolling inducing scene in the last half of her and the love interest arguing in the rain.
Sliding Doors is not a bad film by any means but I wish either timeline went in a slightly different and more engaging direction. I found the film wasn't as gripping as it thought it was and relied too much on stale tropes of the genre. A good performance from Gwen and the film almost won me back with "Thank You" by Dido playing over the credits, but it was too late. It's worth a look, but I won't be going in for another watch.