Serendipity
**1/2
Cinema
Releases - December 28, 2001
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate PG. 90
minutes. Directed by Peter Chelsom. Written by Marc Klein. Starring John
Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, Jeremy Piven, Molly Shannon, John
Corbett.
"Serendipity" wants to be about
spontaneity and grandly insane romantic gestures while itself being contrived
and cynical. The screenplay is an exercise in obvious manipulation of the
two main characters; throughout the movie they're randomly kept apart and
keep almost running into each other. We know they're going to
end up finding each other, so the only purpose of this storytelling device
is to waste a lot of time and energy.
The story begins in Christmas 1994, when John
Cusack and Kate Beckinsale meet in a New York department store, have a cute
conversation about a pair of gloves, and proceed to go ice skating and chat
each other up in a patisserie. Cusack's lines consist of a lot of cheesy
compliments... "I miss my mother," Beckinsale says of her native England,
to which Cusack responds "If I were her, I'd miss you too."
Unsubtle come-ons notwithstanding, Beckinsale
takes a liking to Cusack and jots down her phone number. The piece of paper
blows away, but she refuses to give Cusack another. "Fate's telling us to
back off," she declares, then writes her number in a copy of "Love in the
Time of Cholera", tells Cusack that she'll sell it to a used book store,
and if he comes across it then they're meant to be together.
Cut to seven years later -- Cusack and Beckinsale
have still not found each other, are inches away from getting married to
other people, and yet can't help remembering the one special evening they
spent together. Each of them resolves to track the other one down, investigating
whereabouts and probable hangouts -- and, of course, they keep narrowly missing
each other. Cusack visits the patisserie, drives away, and a second later
Beckinsale arrives. Beckinsale takes a stroll in the lobby of the
Waldorf-Astoria, leaves, and minutes later Cusack arrives. So on and so forth,
for ninety minutes.
"Serendipity" is gimmicky and deliberately
frustrating, and I was angry at its manufactured plotting all the way through.
What's surprising is that we kinda fall for the structure at the same time
we dismiss its artificiality. Cusack is the coolest living actor, Beckinsale
is sweet and charming, and we can't help but yearn for them to be together,
even if all that stands in the way is the trickery of a cheap
screenwriter.
The supporting cast is almost as impressive as
the top billing. There's a department store salesman played by Eugene Levy,
one of those actors who can make us laugh just by appearing onscreen. Jeremy
Piven plays Cusack's best friend with pleasing sarcastic energy, and Beckinsale's
companion is played by Molly Shannon, whose innate comic timing and quirky
good looks are always fun to watch. "Serendipity" is not a very good movie,
but at least its flaws are so obvious that we're able to enjoy the
strengths.
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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