Rent Sliding Doors (1998)

Pleasant evening's entertainment - Sliding Doors review by CP Customer

I enjoyed this film. I'm not in the habit of watching films (yet!) so this was a good start, I think. Nothing amazing happened but it was very watchable. Gwyneth Paltrow made a very good stab at being English but there was still something odd about the way she spoke sometimes.

A well-made romantic comedy that will get you thinking - Sliding Doors review by Philip in Paradiso

Gwyneth Paltrow, as Helen Quilley, is employed by a PR agency in London. (In the film, she is English.) She gets fired from her job and decides to head home. There are 2 scenarios: in the 1st one, she manages to jump on the 1st Tube train that pulls into the station when she gets there, and she gets home early; in the 2nd one, she misses the Tube train and ends up taking a taxi home. In the 1st scenario, she gets home early, while in the 2nd, she gets home mid-afternoon. Two storylines follow, with a chain of consequences that may surprise you.

The entire film is built around the question: What if? It is an exercise in counterfactual fiction, as it were. Helen has to contend with various problems apart from the fact she has lost her job, the main one being dealing with her unreliable live-in boyfriend. Sentimental complications follow.

I found the beginning of the film a bit slow and predictable (within the parameters set by the dual script). But, past the first 30% of the movie, things speed up, and we move away from the conventions of soap operas that threatened to kill off the movie. It becomes more interesting and more engaging. The characters are well constructed and the acting is excellent throughout. G Paltrow herself is very good in the role of Helen: in fact, she was a good actress. (I say 'was' as she has moved away from acting to focus on Goop, her wellness brand and marketing venture...)

So, the film is not a masterpiece, but it is charming and intriguing, as is the 'What if?' riddle, nicely developed in the movie. I enjoyed watching it and was pleasantly surprised. And there are many very funny moments and situations, supported by excellent and witty dialogues.