Movies You Have Not Seen But Should: Sliding Doors

5

Movies Inside

Check out Mikey’s latest MYHNSBS: Sliding Doors!

Sliding Doors

Welcome back to “Movies You Have Not Seen But Should”. For those who are new to this series, we look at films that for some reason or another you may have missed but that you should check out.

This week’s film is Sliding Doors. It is a 1998 British/American dramedy (drama/comedy) starring Gwyneth Paltrow. This film was one of Paltrow’s early works before her career took off in such films as Shakespeare in Love, The Royal Tenenbaums & the Iron Man films (along with The Avengers).

The film’s premise revolves around the notion of how the result of seemingly insignificant event can shape the life of a person in totally different ways. Paltrow plays Helen Quilley, a Londonite who is recently fired from her PR job (and yes Paltrow plays the role with a British accent throughout the film, and not badly either). She then tries to catch a train in the London Underground. Whether or not she catches the train is the basis for the rest of the movie. The story is told from both perspectives as kind of alternate universes, one version that she catches the train and the other that she doesn’t.

The film does a good job of bouncing back and forth between the two alternate universes. I don’t want to ruin the film but there are some interesting twists and turns that happen in both story lines. It is also interesting to watch how the different characters (not just Helen) interact with one another in each alternate universe. Some characters’ personalities are similar while others are very different.

When the film came out in the spring of 1998, it received positive reviews. It got a 63% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes and 59% rating from Metacritic. For a film with a budget of $6 million dollars (how many films today have that type of budget?), it did fairly well in theaters with a worldwide box office gross of $58 million (including nearly $12 million in the U.S.).

Sliding Doors is available on DVD (no Blu-Ray as of this time). It is another film I would highly recommend getting it and adding it to your film collection (and you can get it pretty cheap on Amazon or Best Buy’s website). If you like Gwyneth Paltrow, romantic movies, dramas, British films, or films that make you think, this is a film that has that.
Sliding Doors is one of those kinds of films that is entertaining and can make you think. It is a movie you may not have seen, but you should.

About author

5 comments

Post a new comment