February 24, 2004
Serendipity
Dreadful movie. We pretty much knew it would be because it looked dreadful in the preview, but we held out hopes that John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale could make it watchable. The premise is your basic meet-cute romantic comedy. Kate and John both grab the same pair of gloves in Bloomingdale's right before Christmas. They each are with other people but there's some attraction between them that they investigate over coffee and ice skating. Kate's character refuses to give her name to John's character because in her opinion, if they're destined to be together they will be. They play little games with fate that all point to their eventual connection (though some aren't obvious to them). Years pass. They're both engaged to other people. They can't forget their brief fling and each tries to hunt down the other. Surprise, surprise, after many trials they meet and kiss, the end.
Throughout the plot the hand of the writer is palpable in the movement of the characters. There is some chemistry between John and Kate, but their actions in the face of it feel false (mostly Kate's—her fate obsession is inconsistent and dippy). It was interesting watching the deleted scenes on the DVD (yes, we're insane) because they were all actually better than the ones that made it into the movie. This probably points to some of the blame for the mess belonging to the director.
What makes it possible to sit through the whole movie are the supporting characters and the cinematography. Jeremy Piven gets to stretch out a bit beyond his usual best-friend-to-John-Cusack's-character role. John Corbett is amusing as Kate's new-age musician fiance, Lars. And Eugene Levy goes goofball over-the-top as a strange but helpful Bloomingdale's clerk. The cinematography part is the series of stunning time-lapse passages of the New York skyline.
Posted by jeffy at February 24, 2004 10:50 PM