SERENDIPITY
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
CAPSULE: Familiar-feeling romantic comedy from director Peter Chelsom. Two people meet, like each other, and leave to fate if they should meet again. Years later each decides they should be together and start searching for each other with very standard sorts of results. Fluffy and a lot like things you have seen before. Rating: 5 (0 to 10), low +1 (-4 to +4)
A few years ago there was a light romantic comedy called THE NIGHT WE NEVER MET. The point of that film was that two people whom the viewer knows are fated to find each other keep missing each other by inches. SERENDIPITY is a reworking of that idea. It is a story of Fate working overtime to have its two main characters meet. Each time the dramatic tension is greater and each time it is another near miss.
In a prolog Jonathan Trager (played by John Cusack) and Sara Thomas (the attractive Kate Beckinsale of PEARL HARBOR) meet in Bloomingdales when each wants to buy the same pair of gloves. There is immediate attraction, but each goes his own way. Then the two come together again. Is it fate that is bringing them together? Sara suggests they test it. She writes her name and address in a book, Jonathan writes his name on the back of a five- dollar bill. Sara sells the book Jonathan spends the bill. Will fate bring them back together? Flash forward a few years and both are making plans to be married but neither is totally happy with his intended. Each remembers the one that got away. Each decides to give fate another chance.
Marc Klein's screenplay gives us a pleasurable and amusing froth of a romantic comedy, if a little too predictable and undemanding to plot. It is easy enough to come up with any number of situations in which people just barely miss each other. That builds a tension of sorts, but the audience has strong expectations how it will all turn out. The viewer knows fate rules the lives of the characters since in this case the hand of fate is Marc Klein.
Few of the attempts at style or humor work. Eugene Levy plays officious clerk who is more irritating than funny. Worse to create a romantic effect director Peter Chelsom has not just music but songs on the music track. Notable is a cameo role for Buck Henry. There are also several opportunities to fit in the ever- popular New York City landmarks.
This is a lighthearted and frivolous romantic comedy that will not have a lot of appeal beyond audiences specifically looking that sort of film. In other words, though it is a cliche, this is a film for people who like this sort of thing. I rate it a 5 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2001 Mark R. Leeper
========== X-RAMR-ID: 29628 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 252171 X-RT-TitleID: 1110303 X-RT-AuthorID: 1309 X-RT-RatingText: 5/10
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews