Sliding Doors

Sliding Doors begins with a very intriguing idea.  It explores the ways that a little thing like whether or not you catch a train can completely transform your life. 

Gwyneth Paltrow plays (with a very convincing accent!) a British PR drone that after getting sacked from her job has that fateful defining moment on the Tube.  The rest of the film chronicles the different directions her life goes because she missed a train by seconds. 

In one reality she catches her boyfriend in an affair, meets a nice new guy and finds the courage to start her own firm.  The other one finds her continuing on with her boyfriend as before, slowly but surely coming to realize his infidelity. 

The juggling of the two alternate futures is done very deftly.  John Hannah (Four Weddings & A Funeral) is charming as the man that fate seems determined is for her, and John Lynch is loutish and yet suitably guilty as the straying boyfriend. 

The plot points all dovetail cleverly to show the fickleness of fate.  Add to that a surprisingly realistic ending that seems very cynical at first until you realize it is all just another example of the power of fate.  Sliding Doors is a nice little lost jewel of a film.

Jay S. Jacobs