Coming in as the first release from the Weinstein brothers' new company, Derailed arrives with a great deal of anticipation. It gives Clive Owen a much-deserved lead role and also gives tabloid fave Jennifer Aniston a chance to broaden her range. Despite its airport novel origins, can Derailed become one of those rare thrillers (Fatal Attraction, Cape Fear) that win audiences and critics over?

Charles (Clive Owen) is a bored executive who despite having an attractive, successful wife and a loving daughter, has wandering eyes. One day he misses his train and meets Lucinda (Jennifer Aniston), on the next one. She too is married and has a daughter but there is an unmistakable attraction. One which leads them all the way to a seedy hotel room. But before they have a chance to consummate their affair they get interrupted by a psychopath (Vincent Cassel) who proceeds to turn their lives upside down.

Derailed is a mix of one of those everything-falls-apart thrillers like No Way Out and also the infidelity-is-bad ones like Fatal Attraction. But those movies did not require such a massive suspension of disbelief. The initial confrontation with Cassel includes a rape scene with Aniston which was toned down from the book where each of the 12 separate rapes were described in detail. It was still wince-inducing, and was one of many occasions where realistically the characters would go to the police. They don't want to destroy their marriages, but once the extortion starts it just gets hard to stomach.

But it didn't really pose too much of a problem. I think the film was well made enough for it not to really matter. Suspense was well maintained throughout and there were a number of great shocks. A botched revenge attempt was a particular surprise and there's a chilling moment when Cassel gets rather too close to home. Clive Owen is a likeable leading man and his American accent didn't bother me here as much as it did in Sin City. Jennifer Aniston was particularly successful in completely erasing all thoughts of Rachel from your memory. She doesn't have a lot of screen time but it bodes well for future non-comedic roles.

Vincent Cassel is fine although he feels rather too much like a snarling evil villain sometimes, complete with his henchmen. It's a shame Owen's spouse, played by Melissa George, doesn't get more to do. Her role is strictly the inactive wife who whimpers and worries. The inexplicable trend of putting rappers in films is continued here with pointless performances from Xzibit and RZA, who seems like he's in a separate movie as the unfunny comedy sidekick who keeps saying things like 'fool' and 'motherf***a'. The film also uses the traditional genre staple of giving the lead's daughter diabetes just so you know it will be exploited in a key scene.

There is a major twist which leads to a rather dumb shootout, but if you stick with it there's a suitably satisfying double-bluff finale which will have a sure-fire crowd pleasing effect. As the first film from the Weinsteins' new company it's not going to win any awards, but you could do much worse on a Saturday night. Derailed is full of holes, but a guilty pleasure no less.

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