"Derailed"
by Sonya Artero


From a novel by James Siegel, the movie Derailed centers around Charles Schine (played by Clive Owen), a Chicago advertising executive who's bored of his job, bored of his marriage and stressed out about his only daughter's illness that keeps his family cash-strapped. On the commuter train to work one morning, Charles finds himself without enough money to pay for his ticket.

That's when a sexy brunette, Lucinda Harris played by the beautiful and talented Jennifer Aniston, springs for his fare. Obviously attracted to one another, you just know the two are destined to have a hot-and-heavy affair. But right when the movie screams of predictability, you are thrown for twist so big...even you will be shocked to learn what happens next. 

As for high's and low's of the movie, so as not to give away the best part, all I will say is that the greatest scene is when you, the viewer realize the story-line is not at all what you thought it would be. The low of the movie unfortunately is Owen's performance, which I thought could have been more believable. Oftentimes his calm, cool and collected demeanor made his character not at all realistic.

On the other hand, I thought Aniston's performance was brilliant, especially given the fact that her role is very different from that of other roles as the girl-next-door. So I give her top marks for performance as a femme fatale. Because the movie was well written, I must admit that it kept me interested the entire time. Much like Fatal Attraction, Derailed is one of those flicks that'll keep viewers convinced they should never cheat on their significant others, because you just never know what could happen.