2001’s romantic comedy-drama Serendipity is, on the face of it, some fairly inoffensive, quite charming and well-acted hokum, following the romance between New Yorker Jonathan (John Cusack) and British girl Sara (Kate Beckinsale) who meet by chance one Christmas and decide to let fate decide if they should be together. Years later, when both are set to marry other people, destiny keeps finding ways to pull them together.
It’s a cute concept, but I have a big problem with films like this. Specifically, I can’t abide stories where our main characters are clearly attached to other, essentially decent people, but we’re supposed to just accept that it’s cool that they openly flirt with and actively pursue other people. Jonathan seems pretty sound, but it’s hard for me to root for a guy who so brazenly goes behind his perfectly lovely fiancée’s back, chasing some pretty girl he met once and then tried to use ‘fate’ as an excuse to get in her pants. Then the film expects us to rejoice when weddings are called off at the last second. What about the deposits? That’s not very Christmassy. Why can’t films like this just make the protagonist a lonely singleton?
Anyway, Cusack is a safe pair of hands as anxious, torn-between-two women Jonathan, Beckinsale is unfeasibly lovely as Sara and the crisp, wintery NY setting - with a gorgeously festive Central Park ice rink and immaculately decorated Bloomingdales - is to die for. These two have substantial chemistry and make a darling couple, though the plot involves lots of unfeasible silliness about destiny and the universe conspiring to bring them together. This is a rare film that actually takes the usual contrived ‘coincidences’ of mushy romance films and makes those its main conceit – this idea that, yes, some ridiculous stuff is going to happen here, but it’s ‘meant to be’, so just shut up and go with it.
This involves the writing of their names on a five dollar bill/inside an old book after a fleeting encounter, with the promise that if these come back to them, it must be fate and they must drop what they’re doing and be together forever. It’s pure fantasy romance, but I must be in a mega cynical mood today, as I find it completely daft that anyone who was as genuinely smitten as these two would ever accept these odds. Like, if you fancy her so much, just go for it, man.
Thankfully, it is at least an entertaining flight of fancy, with lots of running around the Big Apple and some comically timed ‘near misses.’ There’s some stellar support too from Jeremy Piven as Jonathan’s fast-talking BFF, Eugene Levy as a slimy Bloomingdales employee and John Corbett as Sara’s bohemian boyfriend. I feel bad for Corbett’s character, as he doesn’t seem to do that much wrong to deserve a jilting, other than play a really annoying Indian instrument, the shehnai. Bridget Moynahan as Jonathan’s missus also seems pleasant and understanding, in spite of her fella’s ill-timed flakiness right before their nuptials. They could have at least tried to make both of them a bit more bastard-ish.
The film coasts on the incendiary charm of its two leads, but I just can’t find it in me to cheer on two love cheats. Besides, the whole thing falls apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny. If these two are just ‘leaving it to fate’ to decide their future for them, then why are they trying so damn hard to track each other down, like harassing shopworkers to breach data protection laws, like a bloody stalker? Sorry, but these are awful people.
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