Back Shelf Beauties
by Willie Waffle
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Derailed
Derailed is one of the biggest surprises
of the year as The Weinstein Company gets off to an auspicious beginning
with one of its first major releases. It's also a movie with an unintentional
moral lesson - if you decide to fool around on your wife, very very very
very very bad things will happen, which is a great way to get every woman
in America into the theater.
Clive Owen stars as Charles an advertising executive in Chicago dealing with
plenty of difficulties in life. His daughter, Amy (Addison Timlin), is suffering
from Type 1 Diabetes, and needs an experimental medication to help her live
a somewhat normal life. His marriage to Deanna (Melissa George) is straining
under the weight of scrimping and saving to buy the medicine and taking care
of Amy. Adding to the misery, Charles just lost a major account, and the
client thoroughly embarrassed him in front of his boss.
One day, while riding the train, Charles meets Lucinda (Jennifer Aniston)
and the two strike up a relationship rushing towards adultery (I ride the
darn train every single day and I never meet someone who looks like Jennifer
Aniston who is willing to talk to me. I guess it would help if I looked like
Clive Owen). When they decide to consummate the relationship, a horrible
incident threatens everything Charles and Lucinda hold dear including spouses,
marriages, daughters, jobs and lives.
What have Charles and Lucinda gotten themselves into? Can Charles figure
out a way to hide it all from his wife?
Derailed is nothing like what I expected,
and director Mikael Hafstrom, along with writer Stuart Beattie (based on
the novel by James Siegel), does a magnificent job of keeping the mystery
hard to crack as the movie unfolds. Throughout
Derailed, I found myself suspecting what
might be coming next and trying to unravel the story, but Hafstrom and company
lead you down new paths as the situation becomes more and more dangerous
and complex without any ridiculous, unfair red herrings mucking up the works.
You just know something is going on, and trying to solve it is half the fun.
The dialogue is nothing to write home about, but the plot and its various
twists keep the audience in suspense. In a sense, Hafstrom and Beattie have
made Derailed into a morality tale with
a twist, which makes it all the more compelling for the audience as we relate
to Charles and Lucinda's predicament, wish they would take one of the several
opportunities presented to come clean and hope everything will work out in
the end, after they have more than paid the penance for an affair. Owen and
Aniston do a good job evoking this sympathy from the audience, even if they
somewhat brought it on themselves, but Owen is better than his co-star.
While Owen is solid throughout
Derailed in all of his scenes, Aniston's
performance is more uneven. She excels in some scenes, such as the critical
moments in the motel room as Lucinda and Charles decide to take a swim in
the pool of adultery, but seems almost too nice to carry out the earlier
scenes where the two potential lovers flirt. Aniston is too stiff throughout
those moments of Derailed, but seems
to find her groove as Lucinda becomes more and more frightened by the situation.
Sadly, Hafstrom and Beattie don't give her one last chance at shocking us
in her final scene, which could have been an opportunity to leave us with
more respect for her and the movie. Instead, it seems to be a bit of a cop
out for Lucinda, but Aniston carries it off well.
Derailed is a stronger than average mystery
thriller sure to satisfy most ticket buyers.
3 Waffles (Out Of 4)
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