Double exposure

>> Gwyneth Paltrow assumes dual roles in Sliding Doors

by MATTHEW HAYS

First-time writer/director Peter Howitt says the question "Are you crazy?" came up countless times while he was writing Sliding Doors. This is, after all, a movie about two potential storylines of fate for one woman. One storyline follows her after she catches the subway, the other after she misses it. It all sounds rather weird but Howitt, who has mainly made a living as an actor until this point, manages to make the whole thing feel natural.

"I just sat down and tried to hack out the two stories and see if they would compliment each other--something can be a good idea but that doesn't mean the execution is worthwhile. In the first year I was convinced it couldn't be done, but it took three years to write."

For Paltrow's character, the difference in missing or catching the train is monumental. When she catches the train, she arrives home early to find her live-in boyfriend in passionate embrace with another woman. The relationship is over right there and then. When she misses the train, she gets home to find him in the shower, unaware that the illicit affair is dragging on. Like a romantic comedy version of The Twilight Zone, the film leaps between the two Paltrows as they each deal with their unfaithful lover in their own way.

"People are still saying I'm crazy," says Howitt of responses to the film. "They just worried about me pulling something like this off, that's never been done before. Especially me, as I'd never made a film before. 'How do we know you can pull this off?' Which was a question I didn't have an answer for. Subsequently, I didn't get any money. And then Sydney Pollack read the screenplay quite by chance. He was happy to take the leap of faith and suddenly we were off and running."

And then Howitt landed Paltrow, one of the hottest leading women in Hollywood to star in the low-budget indie Brit flick. Paltrow was on Letterman earlier this week, raving about the film and saying it was nice for once to be in a movie she actually believed in (Letterman chided her to reveal which of her recent films she thought were duds; Paltrow wouldn't bite). "Gwyneth read the script and then wanted to meet with me. This was quite an amazing thing. After two years of getting doors slammed in my face, I had Paltrow, Pollack and a major distributor lined up."

With Howitt's off-the-wall storyline, was he ever worried about baffling his audience? "I think when I was editing it I was concerned about how the ideas would reach the audience. But luckily, I think we're more intelligent as filmgoers than we're given credit for."

Sliding Doors opens this Friday, April 24