Serendipity: It's All in the Timing

By Teddy Durgin
One of the hazards of seeing over a hundred movies each year is that you can develop quite an aversion to formula pictures, movies that begin and end exactly like hundreds of other pictures. Sometimes the formula feels force-fed, especially when it's poured down your throat by a hack director or an uninspired cast. Sometimes you just get tired of the same old formula, week after week, and you crave something new and more tasty. And sometimes the formula is so bad, you can't help but lash out. Patooey! You swallow the formula, and it comes back up as venom.

But formula can also be a good thing. Sometimes it can taste just right and be so soothing and so welcome that your faith is restored somewhat in the makers of that formula. So it is with Serendipity (new in theaters Oct. 12), the new romantic comedy starring John Cusack.

Hey! Just be glad I didn't say "the new romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan!" I'm sure none of us are ready for another one of those yet.

Cusack, though, always manages to bring something special to his formula pictures. He drifts back and forth between heady, independent-mind efforts like The Grifters and Being John Malkovich to mushier, predictable fare like Say Anything and America's Sweethearts. Sometimes those two worlds collide, as in the case of last year's smart and funny High Fidelity. Serendipity is not in that class. It is a straight-forward story of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy ... well, for those new to the formula, I won't tell you how it ends. But there are just enough quirks and personal touches and moments of true emotion and insight throughout the film for me to recommend it.

Serendipity is a wonderful date movie that succeeds in appealing to the romantic in all of us. Cusack plays Jonathan Trager who meets the love of his life, Sara (the winning Kate Beckinsale), over holiday merchandise at Bloomingdale's in Manhattan. The two are complete strangers and are out to find their respective lovers a Christmas gift. But a strange chemistry is sparked, and Jonathan and Sara share a whirlwind evening on the town that includes ice cream and skating in the park.

But all good things must come to an end, right? Not in Jonathan's mind. He dares Sara to throw caution to the wind. He has never felt this way about another human being, and he knows she feels the same way. Sara responds by putting it in the hands of fate. She writes her name and phone number in a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera, which sells to a used book store. If Jonathan happens across the book someday, then fate will have brought them together for real.

Years pass, and Jonathan and Sara have moved on. Both in their 30s, Jonathan is engaged to the beautiful Hally Silverman (Bridget Moynahan), and Sara is engaged to a Yanni-like musician named Lars (John Corbett). But both have never been able to escape the thought that true love lies with someone else. Both have never been able to escape the memory of that one night together.

Having read those last few paragraphs, you're either gonna have two reactions: "Where are my tissues?" or "Where is my remote control? The game is coming on!" Serendipity is not a great film, but it has loads of charm and it is gently played. Best of all, it presents both sides of the equation and works on an almost Jerry Maguire level to lure both sexes into its story.

To Jonathan, Sara is not the eternally elusive chick he never got to bone a half a decade earlier. Sara embodies true love and happiness. The film is smart enough not to make his fiancee a total shrew. In fact, Hally is just about everything a guy could want. Smart, beautiful, caring, and funny in her own right.

By contrast, Sara's relationship with Lars is not given the same amount of care and concern from director Peter Chelsom and writer Mark Klein. Lars goes from being sweet and thoughtful one moment to aloof and excessively career-driven the next. And his new age ways are good for a few chuckles, but the character never achieves either reality or parody and is lost somewhere in between.

Serendipity also stretches credibility to the breaking point in a few scenes involving chance, such as the one where Sara's best friend from San Francisco (Molly Shannon) runs into Hally, Jonathan's fiancee, in New York and realizes they went to college together. Lame-o!

Still, I did enjoy the friendship between Sara and Shannon's Eve. Jonathan also has a best friend in the always funny Jeremy Piven, who is actually Cusack's best friend in real life. As such, the two share a kind of emotional shorthand, and their scenes of mutual support and manly hijinks really keep the picture moving as Cusack and Beckinsale are separated for long stretches.

What can I say? I swallowed the formula this time, and it tasted good. I will even go so far as to say that it left me with a nice warm feeling inside. I once was touched by a bit of serendipity so maybe that's why I responded to the picture so well. Her name was Caroline, and I met her in Boston five years ago. I had just stepped off the subway and had turned left when I should have turned right to get to the station escalator. I was trying to find Faneuil Hall Marketplace, an open-air shopping center in the heart of the city. Caroline was behind me on the escalator. She tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "Do you know where Fanueil Hall Marketplace is?"

I said, "I have no idea. Trying to find it myself, but I'm from Baltimore."

"You're kidding!" she beamed. "I'm from Annapolis!" We eventually found Faneuil Hall Marketplace together and had this fantastic dinner together (at a restaurant called Durgin Park, of all places!). At the end of the evening, she had to go meet a friend she was traveling with, so we had to say "Goodbye." I remember she asked me, "Do you think we'll ever see each other again?"

And I asked, "Do you believe in fate?"

She replied, "Sure."

Then I kissed her and said, "Then, I know we will."

I often think about her and wonder where she is, and if she even remembers that night, and if I might have met my true love. I also think about that split second when I turned left instead of right that had us on successive elevator steps. Moments like that kind of makes you wish life was more like a movie formula.

Sigh.
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Serendipity is rated PG-13.