Sliding Doors

The Boston Phoenix
April 23 - 30, 1998
Copyright c 1998 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group.
All rights reserved.

By Alicia Potter


Double the Paltrow isn't necessarily double the fun in writer/
director Peter Howitt's debut. Ms. Gwyneth is Helen, a British
PR exec who hustles to the subway after getting fired, only to
have the train doors slam in her face. Could this split-second
annoyance change her life?

Howitt tinkers with such questions of fate by forking his tale
into parallel plots. Stranded Helen #1, a mousy brunette, ends
up slinging hash while boyfriend (John Lynch) shags an old
flame (Jeanne Tripplehorn, in a shrilly misogynist role).
Meanwhile Helen #2 -- who makes the train -- goes blonde and
is courted by a leprechaun of a lothario (John Hannah).

In both incarnations, Paltrow is expressive and amiable;
Hannah, meanwhile, hogs the best lines with his cutesy, almost
diabetic patter. Midway through, however, the whimsical
premise derails into icky, you-go-girl montages and bathetic
melodrama. Worst of all, the film doesn't root for coincidence
or karma; here a woman's lot largely depends on her beau and
her hairdo. At the Nickelodeon, the Kendall Square, and the
Chestnut Hill and in the suburbs.