Review of Sliding Doors (1998) by Daniel2651 — 10 Feb 2014

Have you ever been walking home one night and thought that your life might be totally different if you walked the long way home instead of taking the short cut? If your answer to this question is yes then you should definitely watch Sliding Doors which is real treat for people who like Romantic film and Romantic Comedies. Sliding Doors shows how different your life could really be if you just walked a different way home. It shows it by telling you how different Helen’s (Gwyneth Paltrow) if she had have caught the train to how different her life is when she doesn’t catch the train. The film draws you in at the beginning when Helen tells a very funny joke about where she works. This draws you in because it introduces the theme of comedy which helps the film appeal to a wider audience.

The film also draws you in at the beginning by showing you how different the two lives really are. It shows this when, in the life were Helen catches the train home and gets home just in time to catch her boyfriend Gerry (John Lynch) in bed with another woman called Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn.) But in the life were Helen doesn’t catch the train home she arrives home just after Lydia has left and Gerry has a lucky escape. This draws you in because it emphasises just how different your life can be if you make a very small change.

As well as comedy the film is also good because some of the scenes are very well done. This is particularly true in a scene where there is a boat race. In this scene you see both lives at the same time which again shows just how different they really are. The film also has some very good actors in it. One of them being Gerry’s friend Russell (Douglas McFerran) who plays a very good character in the film. Russell is a very good character because Gerry talks to him quite a bit and this helps the viewer to understand what kind of a character Gerry is and how he feels about having an affair with Helen. But the film isn’t good in every way because it is supposed a romantic comedy and I think that a romantic comedy should have an equal amount of romance and comedy. But I think this film has more romance in it which is especially true towards the end of the film. This amount of romance doesn’t work well for the end of the film which I thought was a bit too upsetting and I would have preferred a happier ending. On the other hand there are some good things about the ending, for example it does leave the door open for a sequel. But overall the film is quite good and very funny in some bits and I would rate 6/10 and recommend it to anyone who likes either romantic films or romantic comedies.