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Review

Paltrow gives a winsome performance in this engaging romantic fantasy that explores the path less traveled. She plays Helen, a London marketing executive who's just been sacked. Heading dejectedly home, she rushes for the subway only to have the train doors close in her face. But just at that moment, the film diverges onto a parallel path, the one where she does catch the train and director Howitt deftly weaves back and forth between these two separately unfolding universes. In the one, she arrives home just a moment too late to catch her live-in lover (Lynch) in bed with his "ex"-girlfriend (Tripplehorn). In the other, of course, she catches the pair in flagrante delicto and sets upon a life-changing course. Sliding Doors only occasionally strays too far afield into the land of cutesy, but for the most part is an edifying look at the alternate destinies that are governed by our decisions.