Thursday, April 23, 1998
‘Sliding doors’ explores road not taken
FILM: Movie’s inventive twist on chance decisions makes
experience unique
By Aimee Phan
Daily Bruin Staff
Everything in life is accidental. The tiny decisions and chance
encounters we brush off every day probably spin our lives into
completely different directions without us ever knowing it.
While most people try not to think about the possibilities and
chances missed, the new movie "Sliding Doors" indulges in the idea
of "What if?" through the eyes of a young British woman named Helen
(Gwyneth Paltrow) and her two possible destinies resulting from
whether or not she catches the train home.
With this incredibly original plot device, the movie diverges
into two different stories. In the first version, Helen catches the
train to arrive home earlier than usual, catching her boyfriend
having an affair. But in the second version, Helen misses the train
and continues to stay in the dark about her boyfriend’s infidelity.
The movie continues switching back and forth between the two
possible destinies, showing the two very different lives Helen
could lead all due to the sliding doors of the train.
Director and writer Peter Howitt came up with this dual-destiny
concept after experiencing his own "Sliding Doors" moment six years
ago. After wrestling with the decision of whether or not to call
his friend at a pay phone, Howitt decided that he would and began
to cross the street and nearly got hit by a car. Although no one
was hurt, Howitt was haunted by the event and its possible
consequences on him, the driver of the car, and the cars behind
him. Howitt believed that this action, like so many others that
occur every day, affects people’s lives and their futures
significantly.
"I thought this was just fascinating," Howitt says. "Things like
that happen every day and you wouldn’t think anything of it, but
for some reason, I kept thinking what if he hit me or what if the
driver got hurt? What about the cars behind him? What is the knock
on (domino) effect?"
Intrigued by the idea of accidents shaping our lives, Howitt
explored this concept in his script for "Sliding Doors." Pitching
the idea to a movie studio would be a difficult one, considering
the unusual story structure. But Howitt stresses that the movie is
about the characters and not just the plot device.
"It was an almost impossible film to pitch," Howitt says. "But
it is ultimately just a love story. The premise is a character in
the film, but hopefully isn’t one that you should be aware of all
the time. It’s not intended to be a film about splitting a life in
two and constantly reminding you of that. It’s ultimately boy meets
girl, but just when does boy meet girl?"
Fortunately and ironically for Howitt, the funding and eventual
production of the film came thanks to a sliding-doors moment.
Howitt’s actor-friend John Hannah, who plays one of Helen’s love
interests, was having a meeting in Sidney Pollack’s office when the
news came that the funding Howitt had been raising unexpectedly
fell through. Out of sympathy, Pollack offered to read the script
and soon signed on as a producer and helped get the project its
financial backing. Pollack said he fell in love with the script for
its sheer originality and fresh wit.
"I don’t know any movie like this," Pollack says. "It’s
deceptively simple and yet like all simple things, you wonder why
nobody ever thought of it before because it’s so much a part of our
lives. You’re always thinking ‘I should have left 10 minutes
earlier.’"
Finding the actress to portray Helen came quite easily after
Gwyneth Paltrow received a copy of the script from her agent.
Paltrow, who turned down "Titanic" and other big-budget studio
films, found Howitt’s film to be inventive and clever.
"I was so overwhelmed by how good the writing was and the
concept," Paltrow says. "I couldn’t find anything to compare it to,
I thought it was so unique."
Hannah, who was previously seen in another British romantic
comedy, "Four Weddings and a Funeral," was also attracted to his
friend Howitt’s script, even offering to act in it for free when
the director was still searching for financial backing. Like the
others, Hannah was interested in the idea of chance encounters
completely altering people’s futures.
"I think one of the funest elements of the film is that you get
to see the two possibilities," Hannah says. "You never actually get
the chance to witness and understand what making the choice did in
relation to not making the choice. You get to see the potential of
both and that’s something we’ve all wondered about."
Agrees Pollack: "There is no life that it hasn’t happened every
day. Every relationship is a sliding-doors moment. Suppose you
didn’t go to the place where you met that person. Your
relationships and your career, it all started with a sliding-doors
moment."
Howitt is so enamored with the power of the sliding-doors
phenomenon that he even credits it with the making of the film.
"If it hadn’t happened, if I had just gone home to make that
phone call, we wouldn’t be sitting here now," Howitt says. "We
simply wouldn’t be here because that wouldn’t have happened and I
wouldn’t have thought of this idea for a film."
FILM: "Sliding Doors" opens Friday.
John Hannah and Gwyneth Paltrow star in the romantic comedy
"Sliding Doors," which opens Friday.
Photos courtesy of Miramax
Producer Sydney Pollack (left) on the set with director Peter
Howitt.
Miramax
Gwyneth Paltrow stars as Helen in Peter Howitt’s "Sliding
Doors," which explores possibilities not realized when one makes a
choice.