Derailed (2005 film)

Derailed
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Mikael Håfström
Produced by	Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Screenplay by	Stuart Beattie
Based on	Derailed by James Siegel
Starring	Clive Owen Jennifer Aniston Vincent Cassel Giancarlo Esposito Xzibit David Morrissey RZA
Music by	Ed Shearmur
Cinematography	Peter Biziou
Edited by	Peter Boyle
Distributed by	The Weinstein Company (U.S.) Buena Vista International & Miramax (Non-U.S.)
Release dates	November 11, 2005 (2005-11-11)
Running time	106 minutes[1]
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$22 million[1]
Box office	$57.5 million[1]

Derailed is a 2005 American crime thriller film based on the novel of the same name by James Siegel. The film is directed by Mikael Håfström and stars Clive Owen, Jennifer Aniston, Vincent Cassel, Giancarlo Esposito, David Morrissey, RZA and Xzibit. This was also the first film to be released by The Weinstein Company in the United States. The film is set in Chicago.

Plot

Charles Schine (Clive Owen), is an advertising executive. His marriage to Deanna (Melissa George) is deteriorating, and his daughter Amy (Addison Timlin) suffers from diabetes, requiring expensive medication. Charles's story is being written down by an unidentified man in a prison cell.

On a commuter train, Charles encounters an alluring woman named Lucinda Harris (Jennifer Aniston). She is a married financial adviser. The two show each other photographs of their respective daughters and begin to talk. A mutual attraction develops, and the two begin meeting frequently. Ultimately, they decide to consummate their affair and wind up in a seedy hotel. An armed man—later identified as Philippe LaRoche (Vincent Cassel)—bursts into the hotel room, beats Charles, and brutally rapes Lucinda. Charles and Lucinda agree not to report the crime, as they do not want their spouses to learn of the affair. Shortly after, Charles is blackmailed by LaRoche, who threatens to kill his family if he does not pay $20,000, which Charles promptly pays. A month later, the attacker calls again, this time demanding $100,000.

Charles explains his situation to Winston (RZA), an ex-con who works as a repairman in his building and whom Charles had earlier befriended. Winston offers to scare off LaRoche for ten percent of the payout. Charles agrees and embezzles the money from his company. He and Winston travel to the meeting location specified by LaRoche, intending to get the drop on him. However, before they can act, Winston is shot and killed. LaRoche appears and takes the money, leaving Charles to dispose of the body. Afterwards, Charles is questioned by detective Franklin Church (Giancarlo Esposito) about Winston's murder. Later, Charles receives a call from LaRoche who claims that he will kill Lucinda if Charles doesn't deliver the $100,000. Charles takes the money from an account meant for his daughter's medical treatment and makes the payoff.

The next day, Charles stops by Lucinda's company to ask to see her and is introduced to the real Lucinda Harris. The woman he met on the train is identified as Jane, a temp who had worked there briefly. He goes to Lucinda's apartment, which he realizes is actually in the process of being rented out. Seeing that Lucinda's photograph of her daughter was actually a cut out of a stock picture in a brochure, Charles realizes Jane was in on the scam. He tracks her down and sees her kissing LaRoche. Determined to retrieve his stolen money, he follows Jane's moves and sees that she is seducing another unsuspecting businessman (David Morrissey). He rents a room in the same hotel where Jane, LaRoche, and their partner Dexter (Xzibit) set him up and awaits them as they snare their new target. Jane and the businessman go to the room, but Charles knocks LaRoche unconscious before he can follow them. Charles breaks in and demands the return of his money. A gunfight ensues, and everyone is shot but Charles, who watches Jane die. Charles, while in his rented room, is cleared by the police near the crime scene. As he leaves the hotel lobby, the continued investigation has all contents from the hotel safe laid out on the front desk. Charles casually identifies his briefcase, which still contains his money, and quietly leaves the hotel.

Charles is later accused by his boss Eliot (Tom Conti) of stealing money from the company, and he is arrested for embezzling the $10,000 that he paid Winston and is sentenced to six months of community service, teaching in a prison. During one of his classes, he comes across the story about him written on one of the students papers. The unknown writer instructs him to go to the laundry room. There, Charles finds LaRoche, who survived the gunfight. LaRoche threatens to continue to disrupt Charles's life, but Charles reveals that he has planned the encounter. He produces a shank, which Winston had given him, and stabs LaRoche to death. As Charles leaves, he encounters Detective Church who indicates that he knows LaRoche killed Winston. While Church suspects Charles of killing LaRoche, he lets him return to his family, where Charles reconciles with his wife and daughter.

Cast

Reception

Box office

Derailed opened in 2,443 theaters for an opening weekend gross of $12,211,986. The film made a domestic gross of $36,024,076 and an international gross of $21,455,000, giving it a worldwide gross of $57,479,076.^[1]

Critical response

Derailed received mainly negative reviews and has a "rotten" score of 20% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 125 reviews with an average rating of 4.6 out of 10. The critical consensus states "With miscast stars, a ludicrous plot and an obvious twist, Derailed embodies its name all too aptly."^[2] The film also has a score of 40 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 34 critics indicating "mixed or average reviews."^[3]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the films two and a half out of four stars and believed that Owen's and Aniston's performances were intriguing. Ebert said, "Clive Owen was my candidate for James Bond, and can play hard and heartless rotters (see Closer), but here he is quiet and sad, with a sort of passivity. He lets his face relax into acceptance of his own bad fortune. Jennifer Aniston does that interesting thing of not being a stereotyped sexpot but being irresistibly intriguing. That works with a man like Charles. Happily married, in debt, worried about his daughter and his job, he would be impervious to a sexy slut."^[4]

Soundtrack

1. "Johnny" - Rular Rah
2. "I Love You" - Thea Van Seijen
3. "Sabotage" - Maurice Featuring HottWheelz
4. "Winston's Theme" (Orchestral) - Edward Shearmur
5. "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" - Grayson Hill
6. "Really Want None" - Free Murda
7. "I'm Sorry" - Maurice
8. "Charles' Theme" (Orchestral) - Edward Shearmur
9. "Better Man" - Maurice
10. "My Love" - Thea Van Seijen
11. "Better Man" (Guitar Remix) - Maurice
12. "Trouble" - Pink

Remakes

The film was remade in Hindi as The Train and a Sinhala film adaptation titled Dakina Dakina Mal.

In 2010, the film was remade in Ghana by filmmaker Frank Rajah Arase as Temptation. It stars Majid Michel and Frank Artus.

Also a tamil movie Pachaikili Muthucharam was adapted from the book.

See also

• List of films featuring diabetes
• List of American films of 2005

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Derailed (2005 film)

• Official website
• Derailed at the Internet Movie Database
• Derailed at AllMovie
• Derailed at Rotten Tomatoes
• Derailed at Metacritic
• Derailed at Box Office Mojo