If you’re making a film it’s not normally a good idea to give it a name that could come back to haunt you if things don’t turn out too well. It takes a lot of confidence to call a movie Derailed as it runs the risk of critics saying it goes off the rails, it’s a train crash, etc.
The train connection refers to a pivotal scene at the start, in which advertising executive Charles (Clive Owen) sees Lucinda (Jennifer Aniston) while on a train to Chicago. He is an ex-teacher compelled into a higher paying ad job to pay his sick daughter's medical bills. His marriage to Deanna (Melissa George) has gone rather stale and Charles ends up falling for the charming, amusing financial advisor Lucinda.
They have a one night stand in a motel. However, they are interrupted by French tough-guy LaRoche (Vincent Cassel), who beats up Charles, rapes Lucinda and then demands blackmail money – in several big instalments.
Directed by Mikael Håfström and billed as a Fatal Attraction-style thriller (among various other movies that it resembles), Derailed didn’t fare much better with reviewers than a 2002 Jean-Claude Van Damme movie of the same name.
Despite the presence of the usually excellent Owen, Gallic superstar Cassel and ex-Friends favourite Aniston (who proved with the likes of The Good Girl, that she has a decent acting range), the actors are said to be miscast, the plot suffers ludicrous twists and that title ends up being somewhat too apt. See for yourself on March 24.
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