Si yo hubiera

Gwyneth Paltrow plays Helen Quilley, she works in Public Relations and is dating an idiot who is cheating on her (come on guys, would you?) After losing her job she heads home early, and the film then follows two Parallel realities, that cross over and intertwine in a very clever manner, that adds a great deal to the movies quality.

One way, she gets home and finds him cheating, and the other way she is mugged and her boyfriend gets away with it, at least for now.

In this wonderfully charming romantic comedy, great performances from, Paltrow, Lynch, Hannah and Tripplehorn plus a good script and some good laughs all add up to a movie i simply don't tire of. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, i just love it.

9/10 and a must for Paltrow Fans

I don't remember reading a thing about this movie when it originally appeared, and that's odd because I enjoy Gwyneth Paltrow's work. I caught up with it on DVD, and I thought it was a superior movie with an extremely interesting premise and splendid performances by Paltrow's co-stars. Without giving too much away, the film deals with two separate scenarios that evolve from Paltow's (a) catching or (b) missing a subway train. The director manages skillfully to lay the two stories down alongside one another without confusing either one. Although the two Paltrows are distinguished by different hair styles, even that isn't really necessary. She (becomes) happy in one story, desperately unhappy in the other. She succeeds (eventually) in one story, fails in the other. She is the same character but entirely different. As she proved in "Shakespeare in Love," this girl can act. There aren't many films where chance causes alternate fates that are followed through to a rather surprising end. Worth seeing for that reason alone. Plus Gwyneth Paltrow, of course.

The romantic comedy, 'Sliding Doors', is a great look at how quickly a person's life can change in a matter of moments. By taking one path instead of another, forming a tantalizing 'what if?' In fact this movie gives the impression that some things are meant to be known, while some things are not.

London publicists Helen, is effortlessly sliding between parallel storylines that show what happens if she does or does not catch a morning train back to her apartment. Love. Romantic entanglements. Deception. Trust. Friendship. Comedy. All come into focus back and forth, overlap, then surprisingly converge in one of the great romantic comedy films in years.

Sliding doors is one of the best films that Gwyneth Paltrow has done. It has it all, humour, anger, sadness, love, compassion and a lot of lying. This movie is most special for the way the two storylines overlap, making this a very original movie. Paltrow's performance is grand as the 'hurt Helen' or the very 'naïve Helen', depending on which parts of the film you are watching. Some of her lines are priceless. Paltrow has had a very celebrated career in acting and of late singing and deserves all the accolades she gets. It was also refreshing to watch her in the murder thriller 'The perfect murder', along with screen legend Michael Douglas.

Yet there are some other great performances in this film. John Hannah was exceptional as the sensitive and understanding 'James', who is helping the 'hurt Helen' back to being her 'old self'. Then you have the cheating boy 'Jerry' played by John Lynch, who was using the 'naïve Helen' to live out a very adulterous and selfish lifestyle. It was very funny to see the way he handled the situation with Helen actually. Then to top it all off, we get a great performance from Jeanne Tripplehorn, who was Jerry's girlfriend on the side, who gives Jerry a very difficult time in both parts of the story.

This film also has an impressive soundtrack. With acts like Blair, the Brand New Heavies, Dodgy, Jamiroquai and the Space Monkeys. Yet there are two very famous parts to this soundtrack. One is Elton John, who is given a bad mention in the movie, when Jerry is caught in a most precarious of positions while playing the Elton John song, 'Honky Cat'. However the best song on the whole soundtrack comes from the band Aqua, with the tune 'Turn Back Time', which suited the film perfectly. The film clip to this song is also very good.

Sliding doors is one of those feel good movies, which can also make you feel sad as well. It shows how difficult life can be in a relationship and how important relationships can be as well. It also proves that relationships are extremely hard work and you need to find someone who you trust and love and that you get the same feelings back in return. If you want to see the good and bad sides of love take a look at this romantic classic.

CMRS gives 'Sliding Doors': 4.5 (Very Good- Brilliant Film)

Very well made with a nice witty script and a decent pace so it doesn't get bogged down too much. It does look slightly dated though, but that's mostly to do with things like fashion and technology.

I must admit I did find the premise of this film quite interesting; how just a couple of seconds at a crucial moment can make drastic changes to a life did intrigue me. I did enjoy the way it was done but ultimately it is about feelings and relationships which is fine as far as it goes. It did leave me with a few questions by the end and I see that as a good thing; there were certain things open to interpretation and any film that does that is always going to be worth a look, in my view. I will admit I did enjoy it up to a point; I found the characters quite engaging, there is some great dialogue and I even recognised one or two of the tunes! Over all, worth a look but I feel its one of those I'll only watch once (although I've been wrong about that before).

SteelMonster's verdict: RECOMMENDED

My score: 7.2/10

You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

I am so enamored with this kind of film. How many people have asked the question after having an accident or chanced upon something, "If I had only left a minute later, none of this would have happened." Now we get into the who time continuum thing and parallel universes. I know this isn't a science fiction film, although a Twilight Zone episode may have fun with this plot. When we are dealing with the characters colliding through the fourth dimension, a whole different set of circumstances are put in motion. The reason we can never travel back in time (while forward is possible) is that time would then become mutable and what we are may no longer be and then we wouldn't travel back in time. Two roads diverge in a woods paraphrasing Robert Frost, but what if we could take each of those roads and see what happens. This movie is quite magical and does the best it can to get Gwyneth Paltrow through her parallel universes and see the things that one would see. I think the problem is that unless we get into quantum physics, it's hard for the average person to really reconcile these sorts of events. I thought the acting was very good and believe things as they unfurled. I would recommend this film if you like to think about the possibilities it envisions. Try it on yourself sometime and extrapolate your own existence from some fork in the road and imagine what may have been.