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REEL TO REAL
by Chuc LaVenture
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

Sliding Doors

Have you ever wondered "what if?" In this film Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) gets to find out. As she is running for a train, the doors slide shut. We get to see an alternate-reality in which she makes the train.

Helen is a Public Relations Executive who has just been sacked, for, of all things, borrowing vodka. She has been living for two and a half years with her boyfriend Gerry (John Lynch), a novelist who has been having an affair with his ex-girlfriend, the evil Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn). The Helen, who doesn't make the train, is mugged while trying to hail a taxi. She ends up having her head stitched up; thus, missing Lydia and Gerry in the clinch.

In order to support Gerry, she decides that she is going to have to take a part-time job and finds one as a waitress. As the job doesn't pay enough to keep the both of them, she decides that she needs a second job and finds one as a sandwich delivery person-all this while Gerry is happily, or nearly happily, shagging the evil Lydia. Lydia has decided that she must have Gerry back, but is frustrated when it becomes more and more apparent that Gerry is in love with Helen and has no intention of leaving her.

Helen discovers she is pregnant. She attempts to tell Gerry several times, but he is always in the middle of some sort of crisis with Lydia and Helen never has the chance to tell him. The evil Lydia, during a weekend trip with Gerry, determines that she has just had enough of Gerry and calls the affair off. Unfortunately, Helen is not the only one pregnant-Lydia decides to take her revenge out on both Helen and Gerry.

Helen is offered a job interview, but she must come to the apartment of the woman doing the hiring. Lydia calls Gerry to tell him she's pregnant and he should come over to discuss the issue, conveniently at the same time that Helen has her interview. Helen arrives at her interview appointment, rings the bell, and who should answer the door but Gerry! She wants to know what he's doing there but, before he can answer, Lydia answers for him-he's there to discuss whether or not she's going to keep his child. Helen takes off with Gerry right behind her. In her attempt to escape she takes a header down the stairs. It is at the hospital that Gerry finally finds out that Helen was pregnant.

The Helen who made the train has a profoundly different experience. On the train she becomes acquainted with James (John Hannah). James is attractive and funny and it's clear that he is interested in Helen. Helen explains that she has been involved with someone for two years and is flattered but no thank you. This Helen, having been sacked, arrives home early to find Lydia perched atop Gerry.

We next see her sitting in a bar awaiting her girlfriend Anna, with whom she'll be staying. But at the bar is James, who is visiting a friend. He expresses his sympathy and quietly moves to the background, watching Helen all the while. After getting completely crocked, Anna attempts to get Helen home, but it is James who comes to the rescue with a cab. Helen goes through a vacillating stage where she alternately wants Gerry to call and doesn't want Gerry to call, wants James to call and doesn't want James to call. Ultimately, of course, she begins seeing James. James is very good for Helen's confidence and self-esteem. He talks her into opening her own PR firm and lines up her first client, Clive, the friend of James who was with him at the bar, who is opening up a new restaurant.

Things go well with James until he quits calling. Helen, suspicious and dealing with the new knowledge that she's pregnant, goes to James' office to see him and is told that he is at the hospital visiting his mother with his wife. James makes an attempt to see Helen and Anna reads the poor guy to filth. He, desperate to explain, tears around London looking for her. He eventually finds her on a bridge that plays a part in one of the most romantic scenes in the movie. He explains to her that he and his wife Claudia (Nina Young) have been separated for six months and will soon divorce, but that they keep up the pretense for his mother, who is in failing health. It is at this point that Helen reveals her news.

Now that they've shared their news and both are happy, Helen goes off to call Anna to give her the good news. James calls to her to tell her he loves her, she turns, and is hit by a van. This Helen, in the hospital, loses more than her child. She loses her life.

At this point our stories converge. I will tell you that both Gerry and James remain as characters in the film. What happens is for you to discover. This is a marvelously witty movie. James' dialogue is a running monologue of absurdities, and Helen can string together in one sentence more profanities than I knew existed. The movie is touching, funny and a bit surreal. Now showing at Canal Place, it is a movie to see. s even more meaningful. This is a film to see.

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