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Derailed

By Tricia Olszewski
Washington City Paper | November 10, 2005
Lucinda is a high-heeled vixen, nearly as quick at seduction as she is with a quip. Supremely confident, she suffers no lack of gawking horndogs when she and her sheer black stockings ride the El to work every day. In other words, not exactly a role that screams for Jennifer Aniston. (There is an obvious choice, but let’s keep her name out of at least one article involving the former Mrs. Brad Pitt.) But though it may take a few years and many movies to wash the Rachel out of Aniston’s hair, her turn in Derailed is a good Good Girl–ish step. No, Aniston doesn’t quite look as if she eats men alive when her Lucinda, a financial adviser, meets Charles (a Closer-esque Clive Owen), a harried ad exec and hounded family man who boards the train one morning ticket- and cashless. But she’s alluring enough, and it’s no surprise when Lucinda’s offer to pay for Charles’ trip leads to after-work cocktails and a motel room. What happens next is no surprise either, at least by the standards of the modern-day thriller: A thief (Vincent Cassel) interrupts the tryst, and though his assault is prolonged and brutal, Lucinda doesn’t want to go to the police for fear of jeopardizing her marriage. The attacker continues to harass them both afterward, using their secret to blackmail Charles out of the loads of cash he’s saved up to treat his sick daughter. Swedish director Mikael Håfström keeps Derailed, adapted from James Siegel’s 2003 novel by Collateral’s Stuart Beattie, nail-biting and quick-moving. The tension is mostly psychological, as Charles tries desperately to keep the situation from his wife (Melissa George), but Håfström doesn’t shy away from violence: The scene in the motel room will turn your stomach, guns are forever being stuck in people’s faces, and let’s just say that the resolution to Charles’ problem isn’t peaceful. Where Derailed lives up to its title is with its multiple plot twists, each one strenuously contrived enough to send what might have been an enjoyably straightforward noir off the tracks. As much as Aniston may not want to be Rachel, it’s not as much as Håfström wants to be M. Night Shyamalan.
Tags: Mikael Hafstrom, Derailed, Clive Owen, jenifer aniston

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