O, what a tangled web cheaters weave'Derailed' chugs along through twists and turns

Derailed, starring perky Friends-ter Jennifer Aniston, is a little like Deceived, which starred the perky Kate Hudson lookalike Goldie Hawn. That film, which came out in 1991, was a stylish piece of Hitchcock Lite that tried to de-ditzify Kate's mom and offer up a tricky thriller about marital deception and a major con.

Derailed tries to de-ditzify Aniston and offer a tricky thriller about marital deception and a major con. (For Friends fans keeping count: David Schwimmer's serious indie, Duane Hopwood, also opens today; see review on Page 5.)

Set in Chicago, the Mikael Håfström-directed pic begins with a sexy, married ad exec (Clive Owen) and a sexy, married financial adviser (Aniston) meeting cute on the commuter train. Chit turns to chat and before the week is out, the pair are lying into their cell phones and slinking off to a seedy hotel for an illicit rendezvous.

That's when the trouble starts: A thug barges into the room, coitus interruptus, robs Charles (Owen) and does worse to Lucinda (Aniston). Afterward, Charles, bloodied but not bowed, wants to call the cops, even though it means acknowledging the affair to his wife. Lucinda insists they can't - that her husband would file for divorce and get custody of her daughter, the only reason she has stayed in the marriage.

Maybe we'll buy that.

Then Charles gets a call from the thug, a Frenchie named Laroche (Vincent Cassel), demanding cash to keep quiet. Then another call, demanding more money. Before you know it Charles is embezzling from his company and looting his family savings - funds socked away for a kidney transplant for his cute, sickly daughter. (Addison Timlin is the girl; Melissa George is her mother, Charles' wife.)

Like Adrian Lyne's Fatal Attraction, which was slicker and more effective for the presence of an over-the-top Glenn Close, Derailed is a cautionary tale about the karmic maelstrom that inevitably befalls a spouse who wanders off the straight and narrow into the thorny thickets of adultery.

There are a few twists in Derailed. One or two you may see coming down Michigan Avenue from miles away, but one or two others at least have a clever double-take symmetry about them. Enough said.

Owen is all right as the harried husband whose relationship at home has turned frosty, but the essential heat between him and Aniston is missing. The actress succeeds in shedding her Friends persona (a mission already accomplished, with more conviction, in The Good Girl), but there's something missing here, especially as things get knottier. Cassel's menacing tough-guy act is thwarted by his inherent, well, Frenchness. And the hip-hop star RZA portrays a mailroom worker at Charles' firm who provides some highly unlikely assistance - and can't act his way out of an interoffice-memo envelope.

Fans of the if-you-cheat-you-burn-in-hell erotic thriller might wants to add Derailed to their Netflix list (way down below Dial M For Murder; its remake A Perfect Murder; and Unfaithful, another Lyne offering). If Deceived was Hitchcock Lite, Derailed is Extra Lite - there's no caloric content whatsoever.

Contact movie critic Steven Rea

at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.

Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/stevenrea.

Derailed ** (out of four stars)

Produced by Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, directed by Mikael Håfström, written by Stuart Beattie, based on the novel by James Siegel, photography by Peter Biziou, music by Edward Shearmur, distributed by the Weinstein Co./Miramax Films.

Running time: 1 hour, 47 mins.

Charles Schine. . . Clive Owen

Lucinda Harris. . . Jennifer Aniston

Laroche. . . Vincent Cassel

Deanna Schine. . . Melissa George

Winston. . . RZA

Parent's guide: R (violence, sex, profanity, adult themes)

Playing at: area theaters