By: debbie lynn elias
As every true romantic knows, for each person on the planet, there is that one special someone with whom each was meant to be. And of course, it is left to the divine intervention of the gods and the powers that be (i.e., fate) to serendipitously make these pairings happen. Enter director Peter Chelsom and first time screenwriter Marc Klein with this magical confection called, of all things, “Serendipity.”
It’s New York. It’s five days before Christmas. It’s Bloomingdale’s. And in the truest sense of commercialism and Christmas, we have one lone pair of black cashmere gloves as the object of affection for two last minute shoppers, Jonathan Trager and Sara Thomas, played by John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. She wants them for her boyfriend and he, for his girlfriend. From the moment their fingers brush while both reaching for the gloves, however, you know it is these two should be together. Over a post-shopping cup of hot chocolate they each learn of the other’s romantic entanglements and Sara’s die hard belief in serendipity, and decide to go their separate ways. But as fate and luck would have it, he leaves his scarf and she leaves the precious gloves at the restaurant, resulting in fate simultaneously reuniting them. Throughout an evening of strolling through New York and skating under the stars with a soft snowfall blanketing them, Jonathan does his best to get a name and phone number from this mystery girl but to no avail as she believes they should “leave it to fate.” Giving fate a helping hand, she vows to write her name and number in a copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ “Love In The Time Of Cholera” and immediately sell it to a used bookstore. He puts his name and number on a five dollar bill which she immediately puts into the stream of commerce. If he finds the book or she gets the fiver, then they were meant to meet again.
Years pass. Jonathan is now a sports producer for ESPN based in New York. Sara a clinical psychologist out of San Francisco. Each is about to enter into marriage – but not to each other. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Sara and Jonathan sill have the other on their mind and events and circumstances occurring with increasing frequency only push those events from a “million hours ago” to the forefront. Consumed with the “what if” syndrome, Jonathan enlists the aid of his best friend, New York Times obituary writer Dean Kansky, played by Cusak’s real life friend, Jeremy Piven, while Sara turns to her New Age sidekick, Eve, played by SNL alum Molly Shannon, in their efforts to find each other before making the horrific mistake of marrying the wrong person. Under what becomes a strained series of coincidences and near misses, they race against the clock to see what cruel tricks fate may have played on them.
Thankfully, Klein had the good sense to add some full blown comedy in the form of Eugene Levy to what, at times, is a tedious script. Levy best known as the father in the “American Pie” films, is a Bloomingdale’s sales clerk and poster child for store security, obfuscation and following the rules, but bending them by way of extortion to make his sales quotas. The talents of Molly Shannon, a very talented comedienne, are wasted here with a very ho-hum character. John Corbett, of “Northern Exposure” and more recently, “Sex & The City”, is so obviously out-of-place and inappropriate as Sara’s fiancé, Kenny G inspired/New Age musician, Lars, that you find yourself begging her to say “no” when he proposes with an empty ring box. Jeremy Piven is always a treat and his lifelong friendship with Cusack is evident, adding some needed realism and grounding to the film, not to mention hi-jinx and shenanigans. John Cusack is perfectly cast as Jonathan. With his lovelorn puppy-dog look, sincerity, shyness and Jimmy Stewart “ah shucks” persona, he is certainly “climbing the charts” as “Serendipity’s” greatest moment.
Despite its coincidental excesses, “Serendipity” is sweet fare, reminding us of the beauty and magic of life and love and of being in love in New York.
