Jeremy Clarke reviews

Distributed by
Pioneer Entertainment Europe

Cat.no: PLFEB 37771

Cert: 15

Running time: 96 minutes

Sides: 2 (CLV)

Year: 1998

Pressing: 1999

Chapters: 20 (10/10)

Sound: Dolby Surround

Widescreen: 1.85:1

Price: £19.99

Extras : Original Trailer

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Director:

Peter Howitt

Cast:

Gwyneth Paltrow
John Hannah
John Lynch
Jeanne Tripplehorn

There have been surprisingly few movies exploring parallel timelines resulting from turning points in their life of a character which could go one of several ways. The three Back To The Future movies touch on this idea to some small degree. More pertinently if less widely seen, Krzysztof Kieslowski's masterpiece Blind Chance (incredibly never released theatrically in the UK) shows a man running to catch a train, missing the same train, or colliding with a woman on the station platform - each of which alternatives lead to his living three completely different lives. British entry Sliding Doors - an impressive first feature by former TV actor Peter Howitt - follows a similar path, with sacked London PR person Helen (Paltrow) bumping into stranger James (Hannah) in a lift before alternately catching or missing (being shut out of by sliding doors) a tube at Embankment station, showing us the two different paths her life could follow as a result.

One: catching the train, Helen again meets nice guy James then arrives home unexpectedly to find live in partner Gerry (Lynch) and his former girlfriend Lydia (Tripplehorn) going at it hammer and tongs. Uttering the legend, "I got sacked today - so, it would seem, did you", she walks out, and before long is going out with Hannah and running her own PR company.

Two: missing the train, Helen is mugged walking home, gets patched up in hospital and arrives home to find Gerry in the shower. No instant walk out, no second meeting with James (at least, not until the very end of the film) and soon a new job delivering sandwiches to offices.

It would be so easy to screw this up, but writer-director Howitt, wisely limiting his disparate elements to a minimum, juggles them effectively, even allowing for such delicious moments as, Helen on platform as Helen departs in moving tube carriage and Helen waitressing at Helen's first major PR launch. The device of having the train-catching Helen change her hairdo may be obvious but it's nonetheless effective and helps distinguish the two Helens, not least when they appear together.

The film contains no earpopping sound effects work, surround or otherwise, and nothing spectacular on the picture front either (there are some beautiful shots of the Thames, though). Purists should note that the film is correctly widescreened at 1.85:1 (trust me, I saw it in the cinema), even though the trailer included here is presented in 2.35:1 - what happened there, I wonder? As if to prove the point, the 2.35:1 trailer actually looks wrong, with the black bars top and bottom cropping the visuals to make them feel cramped, whereas the feature in 1.85:1 looks satisfying throughout.

Finding a suitable side break is a difficult proposition: Pioneer have sensibly opted for an abrupt scene end at 49.06 which cuts away from noisy background sound to start side two on a quiet scene. The only alternative - more dramatically satisfying but technically a closer (if not impossible) call ending side one at 62.53 - would have been to break the side at the point currently 13.47 into side two, where Lydia slams the hotel room door as she walks out. But the sidebreak Pioneer have chosen is fine.

An effective little film, then: nice to see make it onto laserdisc while the format is still with us.

Film: 4/5
Picture: 4/5
Sound: 3/5

Review copyright © Jeremy Clarke, 1999.