SLIDING DOORS

Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah

Thursday, November 26, 1998


"Sliding Doors." Or "Bridget Jones' Chaos Theory," merging a
Cool Britannia women's sitcom and the Philosophy Lite of
parallel realities. Paltrow, an unemployed London publicist,
takes the tube home to catch her novelist boyfriend shagging
an American harpy, then dumps him, gets a fab hairdo, starts
her own PR firm, and hooks up with a new duplicitous guy. And
she also misses the train, gets mugged, then sullenly waits
tables, a morally conflicted boyfriend still surreptitiously
shagging throughout. The story is hackneyed, and the gimmick
only doubles the dullardry. On the other hand, a small
sadistic joy adheres to watching patrician Paltrow's
downtrodden flack treated like a doormat.

Grade:  C

-- Troy Patterson