Serendipity (2001) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"What's your favorite New York moment?"
"This one's climbing the charts."
Starring John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, Eugene Levy, Molly Shannon. Directed by Peter Chelsom. Rated PG-13.
There's no doubt that 95% of romantic comedies follow a distinct pattern: guy sees girl, guy wants girl, guy goes through unreasonable obstacles to get girl, guy gets girl. In rare cases, the genders are flipped. Predictability is a given. Rarely, though, is a romantic comedy as cheap, as obvious, or as pointless as Serendipity, a film that uses its "theme" as an excuse for its plot contrivances. "Lightweight" doesn't begin to describe it. This is like anti-gravity.
It begins in a New York City Bloomingdale's, a product placement that rivals Cast Away's FedEx for sheer blatancy. Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) and Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) both go for the same pair of gloves. After going through the perfunctory motions, Jonathan gets to keep the gloves and the two of them go out for ice cream, followed by ice skating. Jonathan falls hard, and Sara is charmed. When she writes her name and number down on a piece of paper, a truck rumbles by and blows it out of her hand. She takes this as a sign from fate that they shouldn't be together; Jonathan is flabbergasted. To pacify him, she comes up with an idea: Jonathan will write his number on a 5 dollar bill, which she will promptly spend. When she gets home, she will write her name and number inside a book ("Love in the Time of Cholera") and sell it to a used bookstore. If the bill gets back to her or the book to him, it will mean that they are meant to be together.
Three years later. Both Sara and Jonathan are now engaged to other love interests. Both realize they aren't content. Both go looking for the other. What happens now is so absurd that I'm almost tempted to recommend the film for the sake of seeing it. The two of them run circles around each other in a set of incredible "coincidences" that I would describe as contrivances if it weren't for the film oh-so-cleverly dismissing that criticism by building its plot around "serendipity." Of course, since the movie is about fate, the screenwriter can do anything he damn well pleases. I'm not buying it.
There's no suspense in any of this because we know exactly what's going to happen, but Serendipity insists on drilling its purportedly "adorable" non-story into our heads. Instead of "Will they meet?" the question we're asking is "When will they meet already?" To make matters worse, every "coincidence" is telegraphed from a mile away; by the last reel I was bored enough to actively look for signs that something else "incredible" was going to happen.
Cusack is fine and Beckinsale, at least, isn't saddled with another lumbering, clunky screenplay (she's had bad luck, what with Brokedown Palace and Pearl Harbor on her resume), just an inanely pointless one. Serendipity also relieves the tedium with the amazing Eugene Levy, who plays a snarky Bloomingdale's salesman.
What's the interest in watching a movie that spirals around and around a predestined (no pun intended) conclusion? Serendipity wants to tug at the heartstrings, but it only tests our patience.
Grade: C-
Up Next: The Musketeer
©2001 Eugene Novikov
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