Some people will say Swedish director Mikael H?fstr?m's new film "Derailed" is lowbrow. Screw them. Some people will say "Derailed" is predictable. Screw them, too. "Derailed" is a fun thriller that will keep movie buffs on the edge of their seats.
The film concerns mild-mannered Chicago ad man Charles Schine (Clive Owen) who has a great, safe married life with his wife, Deanna (Melissa George). He's the type who will befriend the guy who works in the mailroom (in this case, the RZA). Charles doesn't really like his work, but he keeps at it because he has to pay for a new drug that will fix his daughter's (Addison Timlin) diabetes. Then, he meets Lucinda Harris (Jennifer Aniston) on the train to work and they decide to have an affair. Well, they're about to, anyway, until French thug Phillipe Larouche (Vincent Cassel) barges in on them as they are about to do the deed and brutally derails things (get it?). Larouche starts to blackmail Schine, and things get worse and worse.
The acting is solid all around, the only real flaw being Aniston. It's not that her performance is bad, but she always seems to be on the verge of yelling, "I'm not Rachel! I'm not Rachel!" It gets a bit tiresome. Owen has ditched the English accent entirely for this one, and it works well for him. This is a movie orbiting around its protagonist, and Owen lives up to the pressure. He fights the temptation to overplay Schine and keeps him down to earth.
The RZA gives off a quiet forcefulness in his small role as Winston, the mailroom guy. If the Academy had some balls, they would nominate RZA for Best Supporting Actor. Xzibit also has a lot of fun in his role as Larouche's associate. Cassel obviously loved acting in this film, and it shows very clearly.
The script, written by Stuart Beattie and adapted from James Siegel's excellent novel, is strong and takes more turns than the Indianapolis 500. The twists will sneak up on even the veteran film viewer.
However, the best part of "Derailed" is H?fstr?m's masterful directing. In his first English-language movie, he creates a cold and morally ambivalent world that startles the viewer. His style calls to mind David Cronenberg's in the recent "A History of Violence," in which graphic violence is presented in a most casual fashion, though "Derailed" doesn't have the graphic sex of "History." As the MPAA says, the film's R rating comes from "strongly disturbing violence."
Movie watchers looking for a disturbing thriller that will stick with them for days afterward could do much worse than checking out "Derailed"
