CHANCES ARE
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Lightweight but enjoyable fantasy of a
young man who discovers that in a previous life he was
married to his girlfriend's mother. You've seen most of this
before, but it is an enjoyable, if not always well-acted,
story. Rating: +1.
The light supernatural comedy-fantasy has been around for a long time, having its greatest flourish in the late 1930s and early 1940s with the film versions of Thorne Smith's books, particularly the "Topper" series and TURNABOUT. I doubt that there has been a year since the 1940s that has not had one and probably several, from ONE TOUCH OF VENUS to BIG. But lately, perhaps in part due to the so-called "New Age" thinking, there has been an upswing in the number of whimsical comedies on supernatural themes such as soul transference and reincarnation. The "turnabout" films in which the protagonists trade bodies have almost become their own sub-genre. The latest entry in the supernatural derby (last time I checked) is CHANCES ARE.
The prologue introduces us to newlyweds Louie and Corinne Jeffries (played by Christopher McDonald and Cybill Shepherd). They are passionately in love. Louie's best friend, Philip Train (played by Ryan O'Neal), also loves Corinne, but from a proper distance. Louie loves Corinne so much he cannot worry about minor things like crossing streets safely, which is how he comes to be in Heaven asking to be reincarnated as close as possible to Corinne. Flash forward twenty-four years and Louie is now in his next life as Yale journalism graduate Alex Finch (played by Robert Downey, Jr.). Through an odd, not to say absurd, set of coincidences, Alex finds himself in the house he used to own, looking at the woman who used to be his wife, and it all comes back to him.
CHANCES ARE is unpretentious and whimsical. When he first realizes the joke that fate has played on him, Alex completely loses all his self-control in a way that seems totally out of character. Previously having shown himself to be a quick thinker, it is unlikely that he would so totally go incoherent without ever asking himself, "How must this behavior look to other people?" One curious novelty of this film is that Cybill Shepherd comes off as doing a reasonable acting job. I think this works by contrast to Robert Downey, Jr., who is not yet an accomplished actor by anybody's definition. Then there's Ryan O'Neal, who can display the whole range of emotions from "A" to "A.5." Like Downey, O'Neal started his career playing good-looking youths, but already Downey has more dramatic range than O'Neal.
CHANCES ARE is a pleasant but unoriginal television-quality film. I rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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