Derailed (2005)

Directed by Mikael Håfström. Starring Clive Owen, Vincent Cassel, Jennifer Aniston, Melissa George, Giancarlo Esposito, RZA, Xzibit, Tom Conti, Addison Timlin, Rachael Blake, David Morrissey. [R]

Making a pun about his this tepid thriller flying off the rails in the final act would be all too easy; it would also be all too appropriate, since that’s exactly what it does. Solemn married man Owen has a chance encounter with an intriguing woman (Aniston) during his train commute and he does the unthinkable: follow her to a seedy motel for a tryst. They’re interrupted, however, by vicious Cassel, who’s ready to make Owen’s life a living hell if he refuses Cassel’s extortion scheme. Owen’s numbness feels like boredom while Aniston is cast (poorly) against type as a dangerous mystery woman; Cassel could do his loathsome creep role in his sleep. Stuart Beattie’s screenplay (adapted from a novel by James Siegel) has no surprises regardless of familiarity with the source material, save for an impossible-to-swallow epilogue. David Oyelowo has a small part as a cop in a different scene that’s nearly just as clumsily absurd. Remade multiple times in different countries.

31/100