Derailed is being advertised as Jennifer Aniston's big break-out role since the break-up with Brad Pitt. This film should be advertised as another "Fatal Attraction" or you reap what you sew.
The set up for this film is very much like the Adrian Lynne film from 1987, where you have a chance meeting between a beautiful woman (Aniston) on a train and an unhappy married man (Clive Owen) with a young sick daughter. The two of them hook up in a seedy hotel and get mugged by a thug. When the thug threatens Owen for money after the fact, everything snowballs into disaster.
The first reel of Derailed is very good. This guy just gets in deeper and deeper and the more he tries to handle things himself, the worse he makes things. It's obvious he should've gone to the police but Aniston's character says no and he can't resist those beady little eyes. Clive Owen's mistakes begin to get frustrating to watch. The second reel is more of a thriller and when more things unfold, the film gets more and more interesting. It also gets more convoluted as the film goes on.
This movie is loaded with problems. The two leads are very good, but it's hard to believe that Owen's wife would put up with a lot of the nonsense that he pulls to save his skin. Aniston, cast against type is also very believable in her role. She handles her toughest scene well. My issues are with the believability of the story and with many of the things going on with the leads. There is also a tacked on ending that simply does not belong. They added it because it seems that every movie these days needs to have a twist.
This movie succeeds only on the level of the performances and the effectiveness of the tension in many scenes. It's got a lot of edge of your seat moments, but afterwords when you think about whats happened in the film, you'll be scratching your head. It's certainly entertaining though and worth a look on DVD. (**1/2)
The set up for this film is very much like the Adrian Lynne film from 1987, where you have a chance meeting between a beautiful woman (Aniston) on a train and an unhappy married man (Clive Owen) with a young sick daughter. The two of them hook up in a seedy hotel and get mugged by a thug. When the thug threatens Owen for money after the fact, everything snowballs into disaster.
The first reel of Derailed is very good. This guy just gets in deeper and deeper and the more he tries to handle things himself, the worse he makes things. It's obvious he should've gone to the police but Aniston's character says no and he can't resist those beady little eyes. Clive Owen's mistakes begin to get frustrating to watch. The second reel is more of a thriller and when more things unfold, the film gets more and more interesting. It also gets more convoluted as the film goes on.
This movie is loaded with problems. The two leads are very good, but it's hard to believe that Owen's wife would put up with a lot of the nonsense that he pulls to save his skin. Aniston, cast against type is also very believable in her role. She handles her toughest scene well. My issues are with the believability of the story and with many of the things going on with the leads. There is also a tacked on ending that simply does not belong. They added it because it seems that every movie these days needs to have a twist.
This movie succeeds only on the level of the performances and the effectiveness of the tension in many scenes. It's got a lot of edge of your seat moments, but afterwords when you think about whats happened in the film, you'll be scratching your head. It's certainly entertaining though and worth a look on DVD. (**1/2)