Sliding Doors is a 1998 romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Howitt and starring Gwyneth Paltrow while also featuring John Hannah, John Lynch, and Jeanne Tripplehorn. The film alternates between two storylines, showing two paths the central character's life could take depending on whether she catches a train. It has drawn numerous comparisons to Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski's 1987 film Blind Chance, the outcome of which also hinges on whether the protagonist catches a train.
Plot
Helen Quilley gets fired from her public relations job. As she leaves the office building, she drops an earring in the lift, and a man picks it up for her. She rushes for her train on the London Underground but misses it as the train doors are closed, but the film then rewinds, and the scene is replayed except that now she manages to board the train. The film continues, alternating between the two storylines in which different events ensue.
In the storyline in which she boards the train, Helen sits alongside James, who had picked up her earring in the lift, on the Underground, and they strike up a conversation that cheers her up. She gets home to catch her boyfriend, Gerry, in bed with his American ex-girlfriend, Lydia. Helen leaves him and moves in with her friend Anna. At Anna's suggestion, Helen changes her hairstyle to make a fresh start.
James befriends Helen and she begins to move on from Gerry as he cheers her up and encourages her to start her own small PR firm. They fall in love, despite her reservations about beginning another relationship so soon after her ugly breakup with Gerry. Eventually, Helen discovers that she is pregnant by James. She goes to see him at his office and is stunned to learn from James's secretary that he is married.
James, having discovered that Helen learned he's married, searches frantically for her before finding her on a bridge and explains that while he is married, he's separated and will soon be divorced, and that he and his wife maintain the appearance of a happy marriage for the sake of his sick mother. After she and James reconcile and declare their love, Helen walks into the road and is hit by a van.
In the storyline in which Helen misses the train, she is further delayed by an attempted mugging, which leads to a hospital visit. She arrives home after Lydia has left, and she remains oblivious to Gerry's infidelity. Unable to find another public relations job, she takes two part-time jobs to pay the bills. Gerry continues to juggle the two women in his life and Helen gradually becomes suspicious. She discovers she's pregnant but does not tell Gerry.
Lydia soon realizes Gerry will never leave Helen for her and angrily breaks things off with him, to Gerry's relief. Lydia also realizes she's pregnant by Gerry and summons Helen under the guise of a job interview, but instead reveals the affair and her pregnancy to Helen. Distraught, Helen flees and falls down the stairs.
In both timelines, Helen is taken to the hospital and loses her baby.
In the timeline in which Helen originally boarded the train and met James, Helen's injuries are too severe and she dies with James at her bedside.
In the timeline in which Helen missed the train, she recovers and tells Gerry to leave for good. Helen encounters James, who is visiting his mother, in the hospital elevator. He utters the same cheer-up joke he told Helen in the other timeline. However, this time, Helen correctly quotes the punch line, and they turn and look at each other.
Cast
Production
Principal photography commenced on April 1, 1997, and concluded on May 28, 1997.
The scenes on the London Underground were filmed at Waterloo tube station and Bank station on the Waterloo & City line and at Fulham Broadway tube station on the District line. Helen's flat is in Leinster Square. The American Diner is Fatboy's Diner situated at Old Spitalfields Market. The scenes by the Thames were filmed next to Hammersmith Bridge and in the Blue Anchor pub in Hammersmith. The bridge featured is the Albert Bridge between Battersea and Chelsea. The late-night scene when Paltrow and Hannah walk down the street was filmed in Primrose Gardens (formerly Stanley Gardens) in Belsize Park. The final hospital scene where Helen and James meet in the lift was filmed at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on Fulham Road.