Sliding Doors

I am not much of a romantic comedy type of guy.  I prefer horror and action for the main stable of my movie watching but there are two movies I make an exception for.  One of those is because it speaks to me in a major way and the other, just because I find it hell funny.  The hell funny one is Notting Hill and most of this is largely due to Spike (Rhys Iffans).  The one that speaks to me is Sliding Doors.

My favorite rom-com (Image from imdb.com) 

Now, if you have not seen Sliding Doors this post is likely to go over the top of you so I will attempt a synopsis in a few short sentences.  The movie follows the relationship meltdown of Gwyneth Paltrow's character with her cheating boyfriend.  In the movie though it shows two stories in parallel, one where she catches the cheating early and separates very early in the piece and the other where (due to a sliding door on a train) she arrives late and misses catching him in the act.  In other words this movie is really a movie about alternate realities based on choice and chance.

I like this movie because I feel that this is how life works.  I am not sure that I subscribe to the infinite possibility theory where an alternate Universe is spawned every time a choice is made but I do feel that there are crucial moments in life that could have changed everything.  For example, my brother's death that I talk about here could have just as easily left him alive if he were in a slightly different position, or he could have been hit and not killed (in fact a Doctor said that it was 50-50 that he survived but had he survived he would have been a quadriplegic and possibly in a vegetative state).  In each of these scenario's my life would have been drastically different.

But it is not only the bad that I think about, I also am thankful for some of the sliding doors that have lead me to things that I enjoy in my life too.  Friends I have met through serendipitous means and the relationships I have had have all been wonderful things.  Just the fact that I am born and live in a Country like Australia is a complete joy when you look at the suffering that occurs in many other places of the world.

I am not a big believer in fate, and the Sliding Doors movie kind of makes a fated turn at the end which I am not overly fond of.  It is a true Hollywood ending in that regard.  But on the whole that movie represents my views on life as a path or a (my hated word) journey.  I am an atheist and the ideas presented by the Sliding Doors movie subscribes enough to the chaos of life and the randomness of paths that we take but also gives meaning to it.

I hope this gives you all a bit more insight to what the view from Knights' window looks like today!