Derailed

Charles Schine, an advertising executive in Chicago, meets Lucinda Harris on the commuter train. Both are married; they meet in a hotel room anyway. A man breaks in, beats and robs Charles and assaults Lucinda. Charles cannot go to the police and the blackmail begins. Then he learns that Lucinda does not exist; the woman is a con artist named Jane, working with the attacker. Mikael Hafstrom directed, from James Siegel's 2003 novel. Clive Owen plays Charles, Jennifer Aniston plays Lucinda and Vincent Cassel plays the attacker, with RZA and Xzibit also in the cast. It was shot in Chicago and at Elstree Studios. It opened on 11 November 2005 and was the first film released in the United States by The Weinstein Company. Against a 22 million dollar budget it took 57.5 million worldwide. The reviews were poor: 20 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave two and a half stars and defended the performances, finding Owen quiet and sad and calling Aniston's character intriguing. It was later remade in Tamil, Hindi and other languages. Who it is for: viewers who like the erotic thriller template of the nineties and early two thousands. Who it is not for: anyone hoping the twist still lands. The whole structure rests on a single turn, and that turn is now guessed far too early.