Sliding Doors (1998)

 

 

 

The movie “Sliding Doors” with Gwenyth Paltrow is a story about a girl (Helen) who leaves for work one morning, having several things go poorly. Upon getting to work (late), she learns that she has been fired from her job. Leaving the office building, she races to make the soonest subway home, and at this point in the movie, we learn what would have happened if she made the train, and if she hadn’t.

 

In one story, as she races down the stairs to make it before the doors close, she has to side-step a little girl who is in the way. This split second occurrence causes her to miss the train, only to find out that there aren’t any more trains– so she is stuck with finding a different way home. In the process of finding a taxi, Helen is mugged, goes to the hospital and arrives home to find her live-in boyfriend, Gerry (who is an unemployed author that Helen is financially supporting), in the shower. In this version, Helen becomes more and more miserable with her life and her relationship. She is working two jobs to support her boyfriend, Gerry, not knowing that he is carrying on an affair. She continues to muddle through life, enduring the hardships, until eventually her pain gets higher than her fear of making changes. The affair is eventually discovered and Helen breaks up with Gerry. Immediately after this, she is involved in a tragic accident, and Helen is hospitalized, but she is stable and recovers well. Upon leaving the hospital, she runs into a man named James in the elevator.

In the other story, when Helen races down the stairs to make the train, the little girl is pulled out of the way by her mother, allowing Helen to get on the subway just as the doors are closing. She sits next to a man named James, who attempts to strike up a conversation with her, showing interest in getting to know her better. Upon arriving home, she catches her boyfriend Gerry cheating on her with another woman. In this version of the story, Helen breaks up with Gerry and ends up eventually forming a happy relationship with James. She endures other hardships in this version of the story, including a continual struggle with the trust issues from her previous relationship, though it appears that the bond between the two and the goodness of the relationship will win out in the end. This doesn’t prove to be true, though. When stepping onto the street at the end of the movie, Helen is involved in a tragic car accident and is rushed to the hospital. James sits by her bedside until Helen eventually passes away.      

 

 

 

A nice romantic film to watch to relax or make you feel better! :) xx