{googleAds}
<div style="float:left">
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9764823118029583";
/* 125x125, created 12/10/07 */
google_ad_slot = "8167036710";
google_ad_width = 125;
google_ad_height = 125;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script></div>{/googleAds}Charles Schine (Clive Owen) is a faithful husband and loving father working for a glossy advertising firm in downtown Chicago. His marriage to the beautiful Deanna (Melissa George) is one seemingly made in heaven. But the demands brought about by their sickly daughter Amy (Addison Timlin), who has a rare form of childhood diabetes, has left them with deep unfulfilled voids. They've taken out a second mortgage on their home to help finance an expensive surgery that might save their daughter's life. Their sacrifices and dedication to family truly warrant commendation, but their relationship is teetering on a foundation of Swiss cheese.

Lucinda (Jennifer Aniston) is an equally successful and charming business executive with a loving family of her own. However, the stress of success has provided an ever-slight chink in her seemingly unshakable facade. She's a tortured woman with emotional wounds that reveal an innocent vulnerability. A chance encounter on the morning commuter train provides Charles and Lucinda with the perfect opportunity to act upon their unfulfilled emotional and sexual desires. And they both take the bait.

Director Mikael Håfström spends just enough time with the backgrounds of Owen's and Aniston's characters that it seems completely believable and almost acceptable that the pair are secretly attracted to one another. We get a genuine sense that Charles and Lucinda are tired of giving for everyone else and are ready to receive for a change. The story is actually quite interesting up to this point. A bit too paint-by-numbers, but compelling enough to wonder where this thing might go.

Charles and Lucinda engage in a playful little cat-and-mouse game that lasts for days before they eventually hook up in a sleaze-bag hotel room for a little flagrante delicto. No sooner do they find themselves in the throws of passion than a black-masked, French-accented gunman barges in on their little tryst demanding their money and jewelry. At this point, the film takes a dark turn, ratcheting the thrill-o-meter up to full throttle. Shades of Fatal Attraction cast an erotic pall over the action as Charles and Lucinda decide not to mention the event to their respective spouses.

Here's where things begin to get a little unbelievable and where the film's credibility starts to waiver a bit. The story shifts from compelling romantic thriller to horror/slasher, complete with pistol-whippings, prison shankings, head splitting gunshots, gangland-style murders, gratuitous blood-letting and even a boogey-man that just won't go away. It seems our masked thug is actually Philippe LaRoche (Vincent Cassel), a sadistic con man with bigger plans than simply settling for Charles' wallet and watch. LaRoche wages a phone blackmail campaign against Charles and his family that would put even the best telemarketer to shame.

Continuing his efforts to hide his affair from his wife, Charles finds himself at the mercy of LaRoche, even forking over the money he has been saving for his daughter's life-saving surgery. But finally at his wit's end, Charles forsakes his life as we've come to know it and uncharacteristically shifts into full-bore revenge mode.

Derailed wants so badly to be a clever noir con-job movie with unexpected twists and turns. But the action eventually gets away from Håfström as the film descends into a completely unbelievable mélange of horror, comic-book action, and teen-slasher violence. Perhaps had the film ended a few key plot twists earlier it wouldn't have seemed so contrived. But as it is, Derailed is an adequately acted, but quickly forgettable conglomeration of schizophrenic ideas and disjointed loose ends.


DVD

DVD Details:

{pgomakase}