Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Derailed [Unrated Version]


Clive Owen followed up his box office success in "Sin City" with the thriller "Derailed." "Sin City" is a spectacular film that set the bar fairly high for graphic novel adaptations. It pushed new ground both visually and narratively. The film opened the door for British star Clive Owen to become a leading man in Hollywood. "Derailed" is a film that won´t provide another stepping stone for Owen and if anything, it could derail his rise to Hollywood stardom. Featuring the lovely Jennifer Aniston, French actor Vincent Cassel and a pack of raptors (Rapper/Actors) including Xzibit and RZA, "Derailed" does not have the A-List star power that would help propel a thriller that is this decidedly pedestrian to be anything more than another film on the video rack.

In "Derailed," Clive Owen is marketing executive Charles Schine. His professional and personal life is fraying at the edges. His pretty wife Deanna (Melissa George) and he are becoming distant and no longer give each other a kiss goodbye in the morning. Their daughter Amy (Addison Timlin) has the worst level of diabetes and Charles and Deanna have put a second mortgage on their home and hoarded every possible penny to pay for surgeries and expensive drugs in an attempt to give Amy the best shot at life possible. He has been removed from a high profile project at work and betrayed by his supervisor; a man that is also one of his closest friends. Charles is a man who is one step away from alcoholism or a seriously nasty case of depression. He is a heart attack in waiting and the outlook is not too bright for recovery.

That is until a day when he forgets to purchase a train ticket for his morning commute and doesn´t have any cash on him to purchase the aforementioned ticket on the train. Just as it looks he is going to be departed from the train at the next stop a lovely stranger ponies up the nine dollars to pay for his ticket. The stranger, Lucinda Harris (Jennifer Aniston) has an immediate attraction to Charles and the two quickly build a friendship that finds them straddling the line of adultery against their respective spouses. After a dinner date to get away from the daily stress of his professional and personal life with Lucinda, Charles makes a move to push them over the line and the two ultimately find themselves at a low-rent hotel in a poorer section of Chicago. Just as they are ready to engage in sexual intercourse, a mugger (Vincent Cassel) breaks into the motel room, pistol whips Charles and rapes Lucinda.

Having committed adultery, Lucinda urges Charles to not get the police involved. This becomes a major problem when the mugger begins to extort large sums of money from Charles to keep his adulterous secret from Deanna and daughter Amy. After Charles is forced to give LaRoche all of the money he has saved for his daughter´s treatments, he decides to take action against LaRoche and his partner Dexter (Xzibit). Charles enrolls the help of his friend Winston Boyko (RZA) to try and get LaRoche out of his life, but LaRoche turns out to be more than a simple con man trying to take Charles for as much money as possible and when Lucinda continues to refuse going to the police, Charles has to protect his own skin and find his own solution to his problems.

The premise behind "Derailed" wasn´t bad. Unfortunately, it didn´t take long at all before I had figured out the upcoming plot twists and how the movie would ultimately unfold. In the recent update to the movie dictionary, I think if you look up the word "Predictable," the entry will say "See Derailed." Clive Owen is a fine actor and it would have been interesting to see how he would have carried the role of James Bond had he been the final choice. A few times throughout the film, I found Owens reminded me of Nicholas Cage. His speech patterns and the manner in which he moved his mouth was quite similar to many of Cage´s roles. Melissa George bested Aniston in her performance and I didn´t feel Aniston particularly stood out or impressed in her role as Lucinda Harris. Even the emotional rape scene didn´t bring much emotion from the actress. Of course, one could argue that the film explains that perfectly. The raptors didn´t have too large of roles in the film, with RZA having the most screen time. Xzibit had very little to do with the film. If "Derailed" wasn´t so predictable from frame-to-frame, it would have been an average thriller. With no great moments of suspense aside from RZA´s exit from the film, "Derailed" was as entertaining as many direct to video releases.

Clive Owen followed up his box office success in "Sin City" with the thriller "Derailed." "Sin City" is a spectacular film that set the bar fairly high for graphic novel adaptations. It pushed new ground both visually and narratively. The film opened the door for British star Clive Owen to become a leading man in Hollywood. "Derailed" is a film that won´t provide another stepping stone for Owen and if anything, it could derail his rise to Hollywood stardom. Featuring the lovely Jennifer Aniston, French actor Vincent Cassel and a pack of raptors (Rapper/Actors) including Xzibit and RZA, "Derailed" does not have the A-List star power that would help propel a thriller that is this decidedly pedestrian to be anything more than another film on the video rack.

In "Derailed," Clive Owen is marketing executive Charles Schine. His professional and personal life is fraying at the edges. His pretty wife Deanna (Melissa George) and he are becoming distant and no longer give each other a kiss goodbye in the morning. Their daughter Amy (Addison Timlin) has the worst level of diabetes and Charles and Deanna have put a second mortgage on their home and hoarded every possible penny to pay for surgeries and expensive drugs in an attempt to give Amy the best shot at life possible. He has been removed from a high profile project at work and betrayed by his supervisor; a man that is also one of his closest friends. Charles is a man who is one step away from alcoholism or a seriously nasty case of depression. He is a heart attack in waiting and the outlook is not too bright for recovery.

That is until a day when he forgets to purchase a train ticket for his morning commute and doesn´t have any cash on him to purchase the aforementioned ticket on the train. Just as it looks he is going to be departed from the train at the next stop a lovely stranger ponies up the nine dollars to pay for his ticket. The stranger, Lucinda Harris (Jennifer Aniston) has an immediate attraction to Charles and the two quickly build a friendship that finds them straddling the line of adultery against their respective spouses. After a dinner date to get away from the daily stress of his professional and personal life with Lucinda, Charles makes a move to push them over the line and the two ultimately find themselves at a low-rent hotel in a poorer section of Chicago. Just as they are ready to engage in sexual intercourse, a mugger (Vincent Cassel) breaks into the motel room, pistol whips Charles and rapes Lucinda.

Having committed adultery, Lucinda urges Charles to not get the police involved. This becomes a major problem when the mugger begins to extort large sums of money from Charles to keep his adulterous secret from Deanna and daughter Amy. After Charles is forced to give LaRoche all of the money he has saved for his daughter´s treatments, he decides to take action against LaRoche and his partner Dexter (Xzibit). Charles enrolls the help of his friend Winston Boyko (RZA) to try and get LaRoche out of his life, but LaRoche turns out to be more than a simple con man trying to take Charles for as much money as possible and when Lucinda continues to refuse going to the police, Charles has to protect his own skin and find his own solution to his problems.

The premise behind "Derailed" wasn´t bad. Unfortunately, it didn´t take long at all before I had figured out the upcoming plot twists and how the movie would ultimately unfold. In the recent update to the movie dictionary, I think if you look up the word "Predictable," the entry will say "See Derailed." Clive Owen is a fine actor and it would have been interesting to see how he would have carried the role of James Bond had he been the final choice. A few times throughout the film, I found Owens reminded me of Nicholas Cage. His speech patterns and the manner in which he moved his mouth was quite similar to many of Cage´s roles. Melissa George bested Aniston in her performance and I didn´t feel Aniston particularly stood out or impressed in her role as Lucinda Harris. Even the emotional rape scene didn´t bring much emotion from the actress. Of course, one could argue that the film explains that perfectly. The raptors didn´t have too large of roles in the film, with RZA having the most screen time. Xzibit had very little to do with the film. If "Derailed" wasn´t so predictable from frame-to-frame, it would have been an average thriller. With no great moments of suspense aside from RZA´s exit from the film, "Derailed" was as entertaining as many direct to video releases.

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