Sliding Doors

This article is about the film. For non-vehicular sliding doors, see Sliding door. For sliding doors on vehicles, see Sliding door (vehicle).

Sliding Doors
A vertical mirror image of a woman, above she has short blonde hair, below she has longer brown hair. Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Peter Howitt
Produced by	Sydney Pollack Philippa Braithwaite
Written by	Peter Howitt
Starring	Gwyneth Paltrow John Hannah
Music by	David Hirschfelder
Cinematography	Remi Adefarasin
Edited by	John Smith
Production company	Intermedia Mirage Enterprises
Distributed by	Miramax Films (USA theatrical) Paramount Pictures (International, USA home video)
Release dates	April 24, 1998 (1998-04-24) (US) May 1, 1998 (1998-05-01) (UK)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$6 million
Box office	$58 million

Sliding Doors is a 1998 British-American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Howitt and starring Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah, while also featuring John Lynch, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Virginia McKenna. The film alternates between two parallel universes, based on the two paths the central character's life could take depending on whether or not she catches a train and causing different outcomes in her life.

Plot

Helen Quilley (Gwyneth Paltrow) gets fired from her public relations job. As she leaves the building she drops an earring in the lift – a man retrieves it for her. She rushes for her train on the London Underground and misses it. The plot then splits into two parallel universes, the other detailing the separate path her life would have taken had she caught that train.

In the timeline in which she boards the train, she sits alongside James (John Hannah) (the man in the lift) on the Underground and they strike up a conversation. She gets home in time to catch her boyfriend, Gerry (John Lynch), in bed with his American ex-girlfriend, Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn); she dumps him and moves in with her friend Anna (Zara Turner), and changes her appearance to make a fresh start (Paltrow's hair style is used to differentiate both storylines for the audience). James continues to serendipitously pop into Helen's life, cheering her up and encouraging her to start her own public relations firm. She and James fall in love despite Helen's reservations about beginning another relationship so soon after her ugly breakup with Gerry. Eventually, Helen discovers that she is pregnant, believing it is James' child, and goes to see him at his office. She is stunned to learn from James' secretary that he is married. Upset, she disappears. James finds her on a bridge and explains that he was married but is now separated and planning a divorce. He and his soon-to-be-ex-wife maintain the appearance of a happy marriage for the sake of his sick mother. After she and James declare their love, Helen walks out into the road and is hit by a van.

In the timeline in which Helen misses the train, subsequent services are delayed; she exits the station and hails a taxi. As she does so, a man tries to snatch her handbag. Helen is injured in the scuffle and goes to hospital. She arrives home after Lydia has left, oblivious to Gerry's infidelity. She takes two part-time jobs to pay the bills. Gerry continues to juggle the two women in his life; Lydia even interacts with Helen on several occasions. Helen has a number of conflicts with Gerry but discovers that she is pregnant. She never manages to tell him, but does tell him she has a job interview with an international PR firm. Gerry, thinking Helen is at her interview, goes to see Lydia, also pregnant with his child, at her apartment. While at Lydia's, Gerry answers the doorbell and sees Helen standing at the door; she is stunned to see Gerry, while Lydia tells her she cannot do the interview because she is "deciding whether or not to keep [her] boyfriend's baby." Distraught, Helen runs off and falls down Lydia's staircase while trying to flee Gerry.

In both storylines, Helen is taken to hospital and loses her baby. In the timeline where she originally boarded the train, she dies in the arms of her new-found love, James; in the timeline in which she missed it, she recovers and tells Gerry to leave for good. Before waking, she sees brief visions of the alternate Helen's life in a dream.

In the final scene (now taking place in the original "missed train" universe), James is leaving the hospital after visiting his mother, and Helen is leaving after ending her relationship with Gerry. James enters the lift and as the doors close, he sees Helen approaching and presses the door open button so she can enter. Helen drops an earring in the lift and it is picked up by James, mirroring the start of the film. Before the doors close, James tells Helen to cheer up, and repeats his line, "You know what the Monty Python boys say..." Helen (who, in the beginning of the film, assumed the rejoinder to be "always look on the bright side of life.") says, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition". She and James stare at one another, each surprised by her response. The lift doors close, leaving the audience to speculate whether it was fate or coincidence that brought Helen and James together under these circumstances.

Cast

• Gwyneth Paltrow as Helen Quilley
• John Hannah as James Hammerton
• John Lynch as Gerry
• Jeanne Tripplehorn as Lydia
• Zara Turner as Anna
• Douglas McFerran as Russell
• Paul Brightwell as Clive
• Nina Young as Claudia
• Virginia McKenna as Mrs. Hammerton
• Kevin McNally as Paul
• Christopher Villiers as Steve

Production

The scenes on the London Underground were filmed at Waterloo tube station on the Waterloo & City line and at Fulham Broadway tube station on the District line. Helen's flat is in Leinster Square. The American Diner is Fatboy's Diner at Trinity Buoy Wharf. The scenes by the Thames were filmed next to Hammersmith Bridge and in the Blue Anchor pub in Hammersmith. The bridge featured is the Albert Bridge between Battersea and Chelsea. The late-night scene when Paltrow and Hannah walk down the street was filmed in Primrose Gardens (formerly Stanley Gardens) in Belsize Park. The final hospital scene where Helen and James meet in the lift was filmed at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on Fulham Road.

Soundtrack

1. Aimee Mann – "Amateur"
2. Elton John – "Bennie and the Jets"
3. Dido – "Thank You"
4. Aqua – "Turn Back Time"
5. Jamiroquai – "Use the Force"
6. Abra Moore – "Don't Feel Like Cryin'"
7. Peach – "On My Own"
8. Olive – "Miracle"
9. Dodgy – "Good Enough"
10. Blair – "Have Fun, Go Mad"
11. Andre Barreau – "Got a Thing About You"
12. Andre Barreau – "Call Me a Fool"

British singer Dido's song "Thank You" made its appearance on the soundtrack, becoming a hit three years later. It was a commercial for this film featuring "Thank You" as background music that inspired rapper Eminem to use Dido's voice for his song, "Stan". The song eventually hit no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Aqua's song "Turn Back Time" was released as a single in 1998 and topped the UK Singles chart. The music video is heavily based on the movie and featured scenes from it.

This soundtrack is notable as the last from a Paramount film to be released by MCA Records, which, as successor to Paramount's former record division, continued to release soundtracks for some Paramount films starting in 1979. In 2003, when Geffen Records absorbed MCA and became another successor to the former record division of Paramount, it began to share the duty of issuing Paramount film soundtracks with sister labels Interscope and A&M.

An important omission from the soundtrack is the Patty Larkin cover of "Tenderness on the Block" that plays during the final scene. Due to copyright and recording issues, this track was never released and is only available in the movie.

Reception

Box office

The film opened at number 17 at the box office with $834,817 during its first weekend but increased by 96.5% to $1,640,438 on its second weekend. It ended up with a total gross of $11,841,544 in the United States. It also saw success in the United Kingdom with a total box office gross in excess of £12 million. The film's total world takings totaled over $58 million.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film the film a score of 63% based on 48 reviews, with the site's consensus saying that "[d]espite the gimmicky feel of the split narratives, the movie is watch-able due to the winning performances by the cast". Metacritic gives the film a score of 59 out of 100 based on 23 reviews, indicating the reaction as "mixed or average".

Time Out described the film as "essentially a romantic comedy with a nifty gimmick". Angie Errigo of Empire magazine gives the film 3/5 stars. Roger Ebert gives the film 2/4 stars, and was critical of the screenplay.

Film director Agnieszka Holland considers the film to be a botched copy of the 1981 Polish film Blind Chance, directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, with all the "philosophical depths and stylistic subtleties stripped away".

Further Reading

• (screenplay)

See also

• Time loop

External links

• Official website
• Sliding Doors on Facebook
• Sliding Doors at IMDb
• Sliding Doors at the TCM Movie Database
• Sliding Doors at AllMovie
• Sliding Doors at Box Office Mojo
• Sliding Doors at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sliding Doors at Metacritic