PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 11/11/05)

How is it that movies have numbed us to the act of murder, and yet still allow us to feel outraged every time a rape occurs on screen? Derailed, which begins as a sunny meetcute between a bored family man (Clive Owen) and flirty ex-Friend (Jennifer Aniston), chugs along innocently enough before a very graphic rape scene interrupts the story and forces it to do as the title suggests.

Mentioning the rape in a review technically qualifies a spoiler (don't worry, the movie's bigger secrets are safe), but I make no apologies about warning you that what looks like harmless first-date fare is actually an elaborately contrived cautionary tale designed to keep errant husbands on track by illustrating the tiresome worst-case consequences of "one bad decision." Remember, this is the same territory where Fatal Attraction director Adrian Lyne began his career, but at least, he went on to redeem himself with Unfaithful.

Meanwhile, Swedish director Mikael Håfström's Derailed makes Fatal Attraction look positively subtle, while mustering none of the nuance or moral complexity (not to mention the sexual chemistry) of Unfaithful. Owen plays an ad man (that most convenient of movie careers that sounds sexy, but makes no demands on the character) who has dutifully saved $100,000 for the day when doctors finally invent a cure for his diabetes-stricken daughter (a shameless sympathy ploy for a man otherwise unattached to his family).

Early on, said daughter notes that daddy never kisses mommy as she leaves for work anymore. Red flag. Husbands (the movie warns), never stop kissing your wives, or bad things will happen to you. At first, you may be enticed by some floozy you meet (on the train, perhaps). You may even take her back to a hotel for a tentative foray into scarlet-letter territory, but before you get to third base, you will be interrupted by a mugger, pistol-whipped and forced to watch as the scumbag rapes her before your eyes, then extorts your savings to keep quiet.

He should have killed her—by which I mean that murder, not rape, would have solved the movie's big problem (and just imagine the shock if, Psycho-style, a "star" like Aniston had bitten it in the first act). It would've given Owen a real reason not to go to the cops (say, he'd lunged for the mugger's gun, it went off and shot her, leaving him looking guilty not only of adultery, but also murder).

As it is, all of Owen's problems would go away if he just went to the police. I sat wanting to claw my eyes out as he passes up dozens of opportunities to turn the tables on the mugger-cum-blackmailer (Vincent Cassel as a villain whose only menacing characteristic is his eeevil French accent). I have extremely low demands for a movie like this. However preposterous the setup, I'll go along, provided that the characters behave as I would (or might) in the same situation. Owen does just the opposite, prolonging the agony until Derailed's painfully obvious conclusion.—Peter Debruge