What: "Serendipity"
Where: Southwind Twelve, 3433 Iowa
Ticket information: 832-0880
movies Mag
Fate with a twist
'Serendipity' meets all the expectations of a typical adult romantic comedy
KATE BECKINSALE, left, and John Cusack play strangers who meet one night and leave their potential relationship in the hands of fate, in the comedy "Serendipity."
By Dan Lybarger
mag@ljworld.com
"Seren迪ipity" is a romantic comedy with meager thematic ambition and no trace of originality. British director Peter Chelsom and writer Marc Klein almost seem to take pride in having made a cookie-cutter movie, and to be fair, they've made a rather tasty confection. "Seren迪ipity" boldly asserts its escapist convictions, so the laughs come consistently even if the storyline never adds up to anything substantial.
The film even begins with a standard "meet cute" incident. During the Christmas rush in the early 1990s, a die-hard New Yorker named Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) and a British immigrant named Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) eye the last pair of black gloves that are hanging on the rack. Both make a grab for the item, but neither has the rudeness necessary to seize it. The two come up with the novel idea of each claiming a glove, and then they spend the entire evening wandering around the Big Apple. Despite the fact that both have significant others, it's obvious that there is a mutual attraction.
Review
C
Hoping to put fate to the test, Sara writes her phone number and name in a book she's going to sell, and Jonathan scribbles similar information on a $5 bill. Sara insists that if the two were really intended to be a couple, they will find the objects and live happily ever after.
Seven years later, Jonathan and Sara have not seen each other and are even living on different coasts. They also are now engaged to other people. Of course, they still can't stop thinking about the night they shared and continually find clues that indicate they shouldn't give up looking for each other. These sentences describe the entire storyline, and its conclusion requires no guesswork
Rating: ★★★
(PG-13)
"Serendipity" might have been a bit more gratifying if its components weren't so preor-
dained. Even in romantic comedies, unpredictability can be an asset. Fortunately, Klein offsets the potential torpidity with a treasury of snappy lines, likable characters and agreeably goofy situations. Molly Shannon has several choice moments as Eve, Sara's best friend. Eve is a New Age shopkeeper who can sell but refuses to believe in her own wares. Her cynical outlook shows up in her observations on other subjects. When she and Sara encounter a golf driving range that Jonathan has just left, she states, "Golf is for people who are too fat for tennis." Shannon gets away with her tart remarks because Eve can be as affectionate as she is skeptical
The other cast members also manage to give the material more weight. As with "High Fidelity," Cusack comes across as the screen's most amiable neurotic. Somehow, he manages to whine frequently without losing an audience's affection. It's also refreshing to see Beckinsale recover from her unfortunate turn as a bubbleheaded nurse in "Pearl Harbor." The intelligence she normally projects returns here, and she actually looks better than she did under the oppressive makeup she had to wear in the former movie.
The two have to make some considerable effort to keep regular Cusack foil Jeremy Piven from stealing the show as Jonathan's obit-writing buddy. He assists poor Jonathan on his quest even as it gets seemingly more absurd and futile. The movie's most memorable performance, however, comes from Eugene Levy (the "American Pie" movies) as a department store clerk. He appears in less than a handful of scenes. Nonetheless, Levy's ability to think of the worst possible thing to say and his obsessive need to maintain his own space allow him to upstage the others.
After the World Trade Centack, there are a few elecs in "Serendipity" that it seem like an eerie capsule for an era that have never really existed. Simple, characters in the ilk nothing of flying the continent on a hill, the film maintains stone. Chelsom "serendipity" with the man that ran through his movie "Town and City." The newer effort is more fun because the letters in it aren't egotistiks who seem to leap in out of bed with each other apply out of boredom. While it is sometimes discussed in serendipity," its protagonists have bigger and more chaste intentions toward each other. As a result, their destiny is a good deal more compelling.
"Serendipity" may be faulted for its small goals, but fate may look kindly on a film that consistently meets them.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 200115
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