Film Review: Derailed · 23 February 2006
Hey, I’ve got a blog.. might as well use it – How about a Film Review!?
Derailed is an unfortunate title for the film that saw Jennifer Aniston’s life become just that.
That aside, it’s an intriguing, watchable film adaptation of the book by James Siegel.
The film sees family man Charles Schine (played by one of my favourite actors, Clive Owen) and Lucinda Harris (Jennifer Aniston) become lustfully attracted to each other after meeting on the commuter train to work one morning. Lucinda (also married) offers to pay for Charles’ ticket after his wife emptied his wallet that morning. Their intriguing exchange develops into an affair, and before ya know it – Boom! The crumby hotel-room door bursts open before Aniston can grab Charles’ fly and they’re being mugged by a Frenchman-cum-New-Yorker rapist (played outstandingly by French actor, Vincent Cassel (of Ocean’s Twelve) fame.)
To tell the police would lead to them asking what the guilty couple were doing in the hotel room in the first place, but even though Charles is willing to admit his infidelity, the guilt of not being able to defend Lucinda from the rapist has Charles respect her wishes to not go to the police. She claims that her husband would divorce her and take her daughter, which he can understand.
From here, the film sees Owen’s character bow to the whim of Cassel’s slimy character “Philippe LaRoche” in delivering large sums of money, each larger as the demands continue.
Basically, the film follows Charles’ attempts at hiding the affair and trying to protect his wife and sick daughter, who has a money-guzzling case of type 1 diabetes.
Without spoiling too much, it could have been a much better story (film and book) if it hadn’t ended the way it did, and the main character was punished by the people that he had actually wronged; his family, but then that probably wouldn’t fit in with the whole Hollywood-style ending that the audience want to see.
That said, there is a pretty out-of-left-field twist that will surprise even the most adept of twist-predicters. This gives the film an edge, and I suspect this is what drew Clive Owen to sign on to this project.
It may just be my previous exposure to Clive Owen’s previous roles like ‘Jack Manfred’ in Croupier, the ass-kicking comicbook-hero ‘Dwight McCarthy’ in Sin City or the suave, ass-kicking Driver in the BMW Films but I felt so frustrated watching poor old Charles get slogged in the guts about half a dozen times throughout the film, regardless of how guilty he was of his intended adultery.
I feel he had some nice husband-wife chemistry/tension with Melissa George (the girl from hy home-city, Perth – who went to Warwick High School down the road.. very wierd.) and that this aptly justified his desperate efforts to conceal his dirty-deeds.
Cassel’s characterisation was fantastic, though I would agree with those who say he got a bit carried away in the more melodramatic opportunities of his character. He made an outstanding villain whom you seriously want to see vengence thrust upon when the time comes.
I think both Owen and Cassel did a great job, but I was disappointed by Aniston.
As a preface to seeing the film, I was exposed to a litany of praises of Jennifer Aniston’s ‘unlikely’ performance by various US reviewers. “You’ve never seen her like this before” they said.
So, in hearing this, I was expecting her to finally stray from her “Rachel Green” Friends character that she has sported for the majority of her career. Even as the free-spirited ‘Polly Prince’ in Along Came Polly , she played the same ditsy sitcom character. I eagerly anticipated her finally letting go and immersing herself, perhaps changing her vocalisations, physicalisations, just anything. (Even a haircut wouldn’t have killed her!)
But alas, I had seen her ‘like this’ before.. in every peice of work she’s done. Sure, she’s playing a different character, but she doesn’t execute it any differently.
Whether this was the decision of Avy Kaufman in casting (who did an excellent job on Brokeback Mountain and Capote ) or the director, Mikael Håfström , or whether it was just Aniston’s artistic choice, is unknown, but nonetheless disappointing.
As I mentioned above, I found it quite ironic that Aniston was playing a deceptive temptress who commits adultery while her real-life husband, Brad Pitt, was doing exactly that while film was being shot.
Would I recommend this movie?
Yes, I would encourage anyone who likes an unexpected (and questionably indulgent) twist in their films to see Derailed. But if you’re looking for a “gritty new Jen”?... maybe you’re better off just reading a gossip mag.
