Taglines: What if one split second sent your life in two completely different directions?
Sliding Doors movie storyline. Arriving at work one morning, Helen discovers that she had been unjustifiably sacked from her PR job. She is returning home when an amazing thing happens, time reverses itself for a few seconds and a second version of herself is created. In one reality Helen catches the tube train, meets James and arrives home to find her loathsome Lothario lover Gerry cheating on her with his ex-girlfriend Lydia.
In the other reality, Helen misses the tube train, gets mugged, goes to hospital and eventually arrives home to find Gerry alone in the shower. The two realities move forward in tandem; in one Helen leaves Gerry and forms a happy, new, loving relationship with James; in the other Helen’s live becomes more and more wretched as she takes on two jobs to support her worthless, cheating boyfriend as he supposedly writes his novel but in fact carries on a torrid affair with Lydia.
British actor Peter Howitt wrote and directed this British romantic comedy-drama with a “road not taken” premise recalling the 1921 play If by Lord Dunsany (1878-1957), Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), and O.Henry’s short story Roads of Destiny (1909).
Howitt’s storyline branches in two directions: Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) loses her job at a classy London PR firm, has a run-in with a purse-snatcher, and just misses catching her boyfriend Gerry (John Lynch) in bed with his former girlfriend Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn). But what if it were one of those days when everything goes right? As the sliding doors close while she stands on a subway platform in the London underground, Helen ponders the events in her alternate reality. The plot of Lord Dunsany’s If also hinges on a future determined by catching or missing a train. Sliding Doors was shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.
Sliding Doors is a 1998 British-American romantic 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.
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.
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. The explicit dual timelines in this film mirror a similar if less emphasised split storyline in a 1949 film predecessor dealing with a train crash The Interrupted Journey.
About the Story
Helen Quilley (Gwyneth Paltrow) gets fired from her public relations job. As she leaves the office building, she drops an earring in the lift and a man picks it up for her. She rushes for her train on the London Underground and misses it. The plot then splits into two storylines, presented as parallel universes, in which different events ensue, consequent upon whether or not she catches a particular train.
In the timeline in which she boards the train, Helen 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). Helen dumps him and moves in with her friend Anna (Zara Turner), and changes her appearance to make a fresh start. 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 her 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, she 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. A man tries to snatch her handbag and injures her, so she goes to hospital. She arrives home after Lydia has left and remains oblivious to Gerry’s infidelity. Unable to find another PR job, she takes two part-time jobs to pay the bills.
Gerry continues to juggle the two women in his life. Lydia, wanting Gerry for herself, makes increasingly aggressive attempts to torment Helen and dropping clues of their affair to her. Helen suspects Gerry of infidelity, but later discovers that she is pregnant. She receives a phone call, allegedly for a job interview with an international PR firm. She tells Gerry the news, but does not manage to tell him of her pregnancy.
Lydia calls Gerry to her apartment, apparently to break up. Thinking Helen is at her interview, Gerry goes to see Lydia. While at Lydia’s, Gerry answers the doorbell and sees Helen standing at the door. Helen is stunned to see Gerry, and Lydia drops the news of her own pregnancy to both. Distraught, Helen runs off and falls down Lydia’s staircase.
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, right after he says he will make her very happy; in the timeline in which she missed it, she recovers and tells Gerry to leave for good.
Sliding Doors (1998)
Directed by: Peter Howitt
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah, John Lynch, Zara Turner, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Douglas McFerran, Nina Young, Virginia McKenna, Kevin McNally, Terry English
Screenplay by: Peter Howitt
Production Design by: Maria Djurkovic
Cinematography by: Remi Adefarasin
Film Editing by: John Smith
Costume Design by: Jill Taylor
Art Direction by: Martyn John
Music by: David Hirschfelder
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexuality and language.
Distributed by: Miramax Films (United States), Paramount Pictures (International)
Release Date: April 24, 1998 (US), May 1, 1998 (UK)
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