Sliding Doors

Every once in a while, I'll notice that Sliding Doors is on Film4 and I can't help but be taken in all over again. Basically a romantic comedy with a twist, at the start of the movie Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) is sacked from work and misses her train home. Or she doesn't. In another, alternate reality Helen catches the train in the nick of time and gets home to find her boyfriend having sex with another woman. Whilst one Helen blithely continues with her miserable life, the other gets a hair cut, sets up her own PR company and meets-cute with James (John Hannah), a guy she shares a lift with.

How much of our lives are mapped out for us? Can we really turn our lives around just by looking at things differently? Although Sliding Doors addresses some interesting themes, it's essentially a romantic comedy with a neat twist. Thanfully, the twist serves the story well and it's a credit to director Peter Howitt that he keeps both stories up in the air with relative ease. What's fascinating about the film is how perfectly it manages to capture the late-90s.

Gwyneth Paltrow was busy in 1998; six of her films were released, one of which was multi Oscar-winner Shakespeare In Love. Since then she's mostly been known for a couple of brilliantly dour supporting roles (The Royal Tenenbaums, The Talented Mr. Ripley) and a string of embarrassing failures (Shallow Hal, View From The Top). Sliding Doors shows her at her most likeable and personable, which is still a pleasant surprise given the way that public opinion turned against her after her blubby speech at the Oscars. There are some lovely supporting performances here, notably John Hannah (where is he?), but it's Gwyneth that really shines here.

Another one of the big reasons why I love this movie is its soundtrack. Blair, Dodgy, Jamiroquai and Olive all achieved the peak of their fame at the time, just as Britpop was ending. Their inclusion on the soundtrack helped encapsulate Sliding Doors in the late 90s. The obligatory female singer/songwriter component comes from Aimee Mann, Abra Moore and Dido. Both Mann and Dido were to become ubiquitous on movie soundtracks within the next couple of years so their appearance here might come as a surprise. Aimee Mann's Amateur is a particularly good song choice, played just after Helen discovers that her boyfriend has been cheating on her. Abra Moore's Don't Feel Like Cryin' comes later on, when alterna-reality Helen is putting her life back together.

And, of course, no discussion of Sliding Doors would be complete without bringing up the sucker-punch of an ending. It's here that the film's high concept ideas really gel with the story. In both realities, Helen discovers that she's pregnant before being involved in an accident. In both realities, Helen loses her baby. Whilst our expectations of romantic comedies have led us to believe that the happier Helen will survive, the film does a neat little U-turn. James' final moment with Helen's body is all the more moving because we weren't expecting it. Instead, it's the "other" Helen that has survived, but the film's final moments hint that the two realities aren't as distinct as they might first appear. She finally sees her boyfriend for what he is, orders him to get out of her life and, as she leaves the hospital, runs into James. Her anticipation of James' non-sequitar (the same non-sequitar that he baffled her with in the "other" reality) suggests that Helen's alter-ego might not have died after all, that she has in fact merged with this Helen. It's here that the movie's twin themes of fate and self-determination dovetail perfectly, giving the perfect ending to one of the most impressive romantic comedies of the 90s.