Sliding Doors
Grade: |
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Plot Summary:
Little things have big impacts when Helen--a newly unemployed PR person--attempts to catch a train home one day. Much dualism ensues...Opinion:
“Sliding Doors” is an obscure movie from 1998 featuring Gwyneth Paltrow which didn’t make much noise in the movie world when it was released. For the most part it was panned by the critics, ignored by the public and departed quickly from theaters. Too bad, because that means a lot of people missed out on a sharp, effective romantic comedy that also doubles as one of the deepest, most metaphysical movies this side of “Groundhog Day”—a movie that quite creatively looks at destiny and the way our lives are shaped by seemingly insignificant things.Even without the film’s main conceit (which I won’t mention—if you don’t know, then as always, you’re better off figuring things out for yourself…), the movie would still stand on its own as one of the better romantic comedies in the last decade. The cast is composed of mostly British character actors that—outside of Paltrow, or perhaps John Hannah (from “The Mummy” movies)—aren’t well known in the States. The main romantic leads work great by themselves, and are joined by some wonderful supporting characters. Helen’s ex-boyfriend Gerry is particularly well-rounded (in the role of ‘the other guy’ that traditionally isn’t, in rom-coms). You can easily see how unprincipled and “morality-free” he is, yet can also see how personable and suave he can be at other times, and why Helen would have liked him in the first place. Both Helen’s and Gerry’s best friends are hilarious with some of the best lines in the whole movie. Only Lydia—(i.e. “Cruella de Ville’s less nice sister”)—is somewhat of an oddball, but that was probably on purpose.
Add in the conceit, though, and you have a much deeper experience across the board, with a chance to see all the main characters from two different angles. (Interestingly, sometimes they’re exactly the same, and other times they’re not…) In many instances, you can see the same scene at two different ‘times’—and while the scenes still work on their own in terms of story and dialogue, you’re also able to ponder the similarities and differences between the two at the same time. Movies that work on two completely separate levels for almost the entire running time are rare indeed.
Romantic comedies are known for being extremely predictable—most fall solidly into the standard path of (a) two lovers Meet Cute, (b) are kept apart for most of the movie, and then (c) come together in the end. Here, also, “Sliding Doors” deserves credit for being brave enough to end on a different note than the audience was probably expecting. I’ve watched this with people who say they “absolutely hated” the ending—not unlike the response to the ending of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (not that they’re similar...).
In a way that’s a sign of a good movie--a movie that had enough of an impact on you such that you
care how it ends. (What good is a movie that ends and makes you go, “Meh. Do you want to get something to eat?”) I may be making it sound like “Sliding Doors” doesn’t have a happy ending—it
does, in reality…just a little different than you may have anticipated.
Critics be darned, “Sliding Doors” remains one of my favorite movies to this day—one that I can stick in and enjoy each and every time. If you’re interested in something that combines romance, sharp humor, and metaphysical depth, keep this one in mind…
Content Analysis: (PG-13, 4-3-1-1 on the Baron's Scale)
Sliding Doors has lots and lots of profanity—although most of it is ‘British’ profanity. As I noted in a post here, foreign profanity can be an interesting phenomenon here in the US—you know what they are saying is vulgar in their culture, but it’s hard to really feel offended. (Note: there is enough ‘American’ profanity and crude language to make this an easy PG-13 regardless of what country you're from. I’m not excusing the occasional crudeness—the movie would have been fine without it—I’m just saying in the end it still made my Top Twenty, anyway…)There is also a PG-13 sex scene between people who aren’t married—pretty much a given for any modern non-LDS romantic comedy. This is an instance, though, where you might want to consider the context within the events of the entire movie before you pass judgment. Sure, Helen sleeps with people she doesn’t know too well—and then gets pregnant because of it. By the end of the movie, how could you not draw the conclusion that in the movie her decision to sleep around was a bad one? Show "Sliding Doors" to an ‘impressionable’ teenage girl and ask her whether Helen made a good choice or not, and I don’t believe her answer would be in doubt. It’s not necessarily bad to show ‘bad’ behavior if you also show the consequences…
In-depth Analysis:
Looking back, it’s hard not to think about all the little things that happened that made my life what it is today. What if I when I was looking at the map of BYU campus after my mission, I had decided to live in a different apartment complex (or attend a different college altogether), and never met any of the roommates and neighbors who are now my closest friends? What if I hadn’t decided to do service at the MTC that one Saturday where I met my wife? What if I hadn’t have decided to walk down that one hall of the BYU computer building that one day, and see a small ad for a internship that eventually turned into my full-time job the last five years?It’s impossible to say, since, unlike the heroine of “Sliding Doors” I’m not able to see any of my ‘alternate futures’. It’s quite possible that I would simply found different friends who were just as good as the original ones, a different job that was just as good (or better?). Maybe I would have married a different girl and still been completely content. Or…maybe I still would have met "The Baroness" somehow somewhere regardless of what I did.
There’s no way to tell if your life would have been better, worse, or exactly the same if such and so a thing hadn’t happened—and that’s kind of the maddening thing about it. Little things can have a big influence, but it’s hard to know which little things really are big and which are not without complete hindsight. It's easy to say now which little decisions led to my meeting my wife, but had we not met due to this or that, how would we ever know the significance of what could have been?
It’s often wondered how mankind can have free-will, yet at the same time God can be all-knowing. Don’t those two ideas contradict? If God’s knows what’s going to happen, then we can’t really choose for ourselves, and if we can choose for ourselves, then God can’t absolutely know what the future will bring… Perhaps the answer is found in “Sliding Doors”—where God doesn’t know the future (because there isn’t one future), but knows rather all possible futures, and what will happen afterwards if we make choice A or choice B. This allows for true free agency, yet shows how God can’t really be ‘surprised’ by things that happen…
