The subject of a bidding war by two major studios, Miramax and Paramount, writer-director Peter Howitt's periodically funny, mostly aimless "Sliding Doors" is, nevertheless, a pleasant diversion with quite a few fine moments to share.

The film asks the same question as Francis Ford Coppola's "Peggy Sue Got Married": knowing what you now know, what would you do differently in life? Unlike in "Peggy Sue", however, the protagonist in "Sliding Doors", Helen (Paltrow), gets a chance to live her two possible lives concurrently. When we first meet her, Helen is a public relations executive living with Gerry (John Lynch), a writer working on a seemingly endless manuscript. Sacked from her job on a whim (an oddly constructed and awkwardly handled little episode about male dominance in the public relations field is the catalyst for this plot development), Helen rushes for the London underground (aka the subway system), and in a plot contrivance for which no explanation is ever attempted, manages to both catch and miss the ride. The Helen who catches the train is first chatted up by James Hamilton (John Hannah), a suavely charming and easy-going Scot (is there any other sort in a Brit film?), then later goes home to walk in on Gerry in bed with his ex-girlfriend (Jeanne Tripplehorn). The Helen who misses the train suffers an attempted mugging, and reaches home just minutes after Gerry's infidelity is concluded. The film then goes on to follow the parallel lives of this one woman.

Unfortunately, this intriguing premise is, for the most part, a mere plot device for Howitt to contrive two love stories for one character. There are many opportunities to examine Helen as a complex and believable multi-dimensional character, delving into her psyche and understanding her growth and development, but these are largely missed. Instead, Howitt's script has the two Helens behave in ways so different from each other that it is scarcely believable that they are two halves of the same whole person: one becomes empowered and independent, the other remains a doormat and a loser - yes, the film is that simplistic.

That said, the dialogue sparkles in many instances with witty repartee and zippy zingers that elicit many laughs. Most of the humor, however, hinges upon the syntax and peculiarities inherent in the English language as spoken by the Brits. Howitt seems to think that stringing together a whole bunch of quintessentially British swear words is equivalent to writing a good recurring joke, and so, characters are made to swear incessantly in a quaint, cute fashion. Over and over, Howitt chooses the easy way out as a script-writer, letting the words draw a quick chuckle, rather than building up any real comedic elements in the story. He also insists on injecting some ill-advised bits of dramatic tension by introducing some red herrings in the plot and by contriving a final plot twist which brings back bad memories of "City of Angels".

As a director, Howitt lets his cast down a little by being too lax in his pacing. Certain portions of the film seem to be ploddingly directionless, headed for no particular destination, waiting for the next quick joke to come jolt it into focus. This is unfortunate because Howitt does show a flair for handling his actors. The performances he draws from them are deserving of better material than what they have been given to play.

Gwyneth Paltrow gets a chance to employ that nice, clipped accent she learnt for "Emma" once again by playing Helen. Her roles are written in a simple trajectory, so the plot development pretty much mirrors her characters' changes and this takes care of her acting for her in a sense. However, she is done in by Howitt's insistence on painting things in black and white strokes so that she is forced to play one Helen a particular way, and the other Helen another way. The two characters might as well be unrelated. Paltrow does not suggest any form of connection between the two characters she is playing, nor does she craft a strong enough persona for each one to suit the script's requirements. Many times, one gets the impression that one is watching Paltrow herself on screen, not exactly giving a performance at all, which is rather surprising.

Also, it is amazing that bad script magnet Jeanne Tripplehorn somehow found her way into this film, playing a character with some wickedly hilarious lines. Given the right material (for reference, see her bizarre and enjoyably demented turn as "France" in the severely underrated and largely ignored "The Night We Never Met" starring Matthew Broderick and Annabella Sciorra), Tripplehorn can make things work. Here, although she has many wonderful moments to play, she is mostly relegated to a one-note villainess role. The script suggests that she's a really intelligent, liberated and independent woman - why on earth would she even want to have anything to do with Gerry is never explained.

The men in the cast fare a lot better than the women. John Lynch is given the most thankless role of all, and given the limitations of the part, he does a wonderful job of suggesting that Gerry's avowals of love are really hollow declarations. John Hannah, on the other hand, turns on the charm to full level in order to win audiences once again, following his turn in the wildly successful "Four Weddings and a Funeral" a few years ago. Both men out-perform the material they work with, and Hannah, in particular, is a delight to watch.

Ultimately, "Sliding Doors" tries too hard to be witty and charming, straining its laughs and situations in the process. The story being told is almost without any tension, and the film, though good for a few laughs, is not terribly satisfying, and especially does not live up to all the hype it garnered from Sundance.

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