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What convinced me that Derailed is an effective thriller is that the performances and twists are so effective that I was completely distracted by the plot’s failures in logic.  Clive Owen plays Charles Schine, a Chicago ad executive whose life has become a burden.  His daughter, Amy (Addison Timlin), suffers from diabetes and her third kidney transplant has failed.  He and his wife, Deanna (Melissa George), are deeply in debt.  They had to take out a second mortgage for a dialysis machine so their daughter could be cared for at home.  As they anticipate another kidney transplant, they must save every spare penny to pay for a horrendously expensive new drug that has a very high success rate in preventing organ rejection.  This psychological pressure may be affecting Charles’ job performance; an important client has him fired from its account.  And his wife’s lack of affection simply brings him further down.  He’s ripe for a distraction; he’s ripe for the unexpected attentions of a beautiful woman.

He has a cute meet with Lucinda Harris (Jennifer Aniston) onboard a commuter train that runs between his suburban community and the city.  She’s a financial advisor at a powerful firm and there is an instant chemistry.  They meet for lunch.  They meet for dinner.  They share intimate aspects of their lives.  She’s married to a career-obsessed attorney who has little time for her, but she’s dedicated to her young daughter.  Empathy and attraction soon overcome a reluctance to be unfaithful.  They take a room at a sleazy little hotel in downtown Chicago that neither of their spouses and none of their friends is ever likely to patronize and begin to pull each other’s cloths off.  And that’s when things suddenly go very wrong.

A well-armed thug with a French accent breaks into their room, robs them, taunts them, pistol whips Charles, and rapes Lucinda.  It is a vicious, brutal attack, but Lucinda, fearful of losing her daughter to her husband in a divorce, insists that they not notify the police.  Traumatized by the rape, she climbs into a cab, leaving Charles to find his way to a hospital to have his broken nose treated.  He returns home to explain that he was mugged, hoping to put the incident behind him.  Alas, that is not to be.

The attacker is Philippe LaRoche (Vincent Cassel), and it doesn’t take him long to deduce that Charles and Lucinda are married to others and don’t want their affair exposed.  Charles becomes a target for blackmailed, forced to choose between destroying his marriage and giving up that funds put aside for his daughter’s treatment.  The salient points are made clear in the film’s trailer, and I will offer little more.

Director Mikael Hafstrom and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, who adapted James Siegel’s novel, do a splendid job of manipulating the viewer from the very first scene.  Distracted and deceived, viewers are encouraged to make assumptions that may have entirely different meanings as they are drawn into the plight of these two hapless victims.  Charles and Lucinda are personable and desperately in need of mutual comfort, so LaRoche’s attack and relentless brutal onslaught becomes squirm-inducing.  Every move Charles attempts to extricate him and Lucinda is repulsed by a LaRoche countermove.  And just as the viewer can’t believe things could possibly get any worse . . .

This is a departure for both Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston.  He doesn’t convey power in this role; his performance is subtle, projecting powerlessness, sadness, almost helplessness.  Aniston isn’t the pretty girl next door or the quirky young thing secretly longing for love; in this role she’s a serious flirt, witty, a bit caustic, and an almost inadvertent seductress.  It’s a delicate balance, expressing desire and a reluctance to act upon it.  Vincent Cassel is equally impressive as a repulsive amoral brute.  And as I mentioned in the very first line of this review, the performances are so effective that it’s only in hindsight that holes and improbabilities begin to emerge.  My advice is to see it for the performances.  See it for the plot twists.  Leave your critical mind at the door and simply experience Derailed.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in anamorphic video.  I’m sorry to report that this is a typical Miramax transfer, looking highly processed and flawed.  The video is very soft.  The transfer is marred by intrusive edge halos.  As a result, small object detail isn’t as revealing as it should be.  Color accuracy seems reasonably good based on very skin tones, but the chroma saturation seems a tad low.  Even vivid colors don’t stand out.  Low color saturation is a departure for Miramax transfers and I’m wondering if it was a filmmaker’s artistic decision.  Shadow detail is quite nice.  I didn’t notice any macroblocking or mosquito noise.  I was hoping that when the Bob and Harvey Weinstein broke away from Miramax to form The Weinstein Company that the telecine and compression work would improve.  Alas, it is very much more of the same.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is quite nice.  It is overwhelmingly front centric.  There is the occasional surround effect, like a pan or a platform announcement.  EX decoding puts those announcements directly behind the viewer, yet other surround sounds are placed in the back left or right channels.  I suspect that EX decoding will neither help nor hurt this film.  Deep bass is present very occasionally and when it is, it impresses.  For the most part, sound effects simply serve the images; the emphasis is on the spoken word.  The orchestral score by Ed Shearmur is intended to provoke the appropriate emotions from the audience without establishing any notable themes; it’s presented with reasonable fidelity.  The source tracks are obnoxiously load and raucous.  The dialog is distortion-free throughout.

The alternate language is in French Dolby Digital 5.1.  Optional subtitles are in Spanish and English, for which Closed Captions are also included.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The disc opens with a group of three trailers (7:47): Scary Movie 4; TransAmerica; and, The Matador.

There are three deleted scenes (10:38) that may be played individually or sequentially with a thoughtful “Play All” option.  Some tend to alter our view of the characters and their interrelationships.  Some simply flesh out a plot-point that was sufficiently clear by inference.  None would have enhanced the experience of watching the feature film.

The Making of Derailed (8:15) is the featurette.  This is essentially EPK fluff.  The filmmakers and principals offer a few thoughts about the nature of the film and the characters.  There are kind words about the working relationships.  There is little of substance.

Finally, there is the feature film’s theatrical trailer (2:20).

The 112-minute film is organized into twenty-eight chapters.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.