Saturday, January 6, 2018

Sliding Doors 1998 Movie Review - No Spoilers




From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a quick spoiler free film review for you.

Today I'll be reviewing the movie Sliding Doors released in 1998.

Starring:
Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah, and John Lynch

Directed by:
Peter Howitt

Genre:
Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

Rating:
PG-13

Budget:
$9,000,000 (estimated)

IMDb Rating is currently:
6.8

The Synopsis is:
Helen’s destiny may be completely changed as she splits into an alternative universe.  We get to see which of the two lives turn out for the better.

Helen loses her job and her mooching boyfriend, Gerry is cheating on her with his psycho ex girlfriend from America.  By the way this is set in Great Britain.

On the way home from getting fired Helen splits her destiny, where Helen #1 does not catch the train and the Helen #2 catches the train.

Gerry isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he is cunning, which makes him a formidable challenge as he lies to Helen #1 repeatedly.  He convinces Helen #1 that she should work 2 jobs to support his writing career, while hers as a publicist suffers. 

She nearly discovers his lies so many times but he manages to cleverly get out of it each time.  You just want him to get caught.

What's also into play here is Gerry’s side girl Lydia and let me tell you… Whoo, that Lydia, is a piece of work.  I almost thought the film was going to turn into a horror story channeling Fatal Attraction released in 1987.  She is desperately trying to get Gerry back for good and she’ll do anything to make that happen.

In the other timeline, Helen #2 catches the train and catches Gerry and Lydia in a very compromising situation.  Helen #2 wisely moves out and starts a brand new life.

At first you think that Helen #2 has the better life and the film demonstrates the difference where at the same venue, Helen #1 is working as a waitress to support Gerry and Helen #2 is actually hosting an event.

In each of the two dimensions, she encounters different sets of problems and want to see her pull through. 

Although many unfortunate events happen to Helen, she is feisty, she fights back, and she is extremely classy about it too.  Very graceful, in the line of fire.  And something I really want to point out is that the dialogue is light and bouncy and serious when it needs to be.  I just love the dialogue and I think that it’s one of the strongest aspects of the film besides the performances.

I thought that they pulled of the effect of displaying the two worlds great without over doing special effects.  Sometimes it was just a musical cue of pixie dust.

When Helen misses the train, she gets a cut on her forehead, helping us to determine which Helen we are watching on screen, and then later, they use a cute bob haircut to further help us to tell the two apart. 

I thought that was ingenious because of its simplicity.

The ending did not go the way I thought it would but somehow, I was satisfied by it.  Just be prepared for getting a little teary eyed.  They really pull at the heartstrings.

Gwyneth Paltrow is just excellent in this film.  I’ve heard many British actors say that her accent is flawless, but I have no idea about that.  It sounds very good to me and it seemed to be a good match for her character in the film.

I will just let you know that I am not a romance comedy lover.  I find them too formulaic for my taste.  But this one was so different for me.  I really love this movie and although there are some slow moving parts, there are some really juicy parts too. 

This is a very unique romantic comedy, that makes you think a bit.  What would have happened if you didn’t catch the bus, plane, or train at the exact time you did?  Would your life be as different as Helen’s?  I think it stands apart from a lot of rom-coms just for that alone.  Although it’s not so much a gut busting comedy, it delivers a very thought provoking concept which is vastly entertaining to me.


My Rating:
8.6


That sums up my quick spoiler free review.  This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!  Take care movie lovers!  I'm off to the next review!



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