Derailed is one of the few movies I got from Netflix, but sent back without watching. I got it because, as many of you know, I’m a big Clive Owen fan and, well, that’s all I really knew about it aside from the fact that Jennifer Aniston is in it. Once I got it, though, I read the synopsis and found that it was about Owen’s character getting revenge after his mistress, Aniston, gets raped in a hotel room. Not wanting to watch something like that, I passed. But, it was on Bravo yesterday and I figured I’d give it a whirl. I missed the beginning, but here’s the basics. Owen’s married, misses his regular train and meets Aniston and they start an affair. Soon enough, a criminal (Vincent Cassel) breaks into their hotel room, attacks Owen and Aniston and leaves. Owen wants to call the cops, but Aniston says not to. Soon enough he’s being blackmailed by the attacker who’s showing up at his house and demanding all kinds of money. Things get worse from there as you might imagine.

I’m going to jump into SPOILER territory here, because I found the twist to be very interesting. It turns out that Aniston is actually in on the con with Cassell and Xzibit. I definitely didn’t see that one coming. After that, Owen’s life falls apart as his wife finds out and his job finds out he was stealing from them to pay the blackmailer. He then sets up a sting of his own and attacks Cassell, Aniston and Xzibit. There’s yet another twist at the end that seems sloppy at first, but then works out, but didn’t really surprise.

All in all, it was an alright movie, but lacked the action I want from a Clive Owen movie. I’m also pretty sick of movies in which I’m yelling at the main character for not just going to the cops and getting things figured out at a logical time. Hey, these things always blow up in your face, have you never seen one of these movies? Your wife’s gonna find out and blackmailers almost never stop, so just tell the truth. Ah well, it kept me busy while working yesterday, but I’d much rather watch him in something like Sin City.