The Good: Acting, I suppose, but that's a stretch
The Bad: Horrible characters, Dippy plot, Sense of rhythm
The Basics: A true film to avoid, Serendipity witlessly gives us what we know will happen, but only after dragging it out unendingly.
Often the problem with predictable films is, well, they are predictable. There is definitely something to be said about a film where you don't know what will happen next. The insulting thing about a film where you know exactly what will happen next is when it insults the viewer's intelligence (i.e. drags out the expected resolution without adding anything) or becomes predictable contrary to the characters in the film. Serendipity suffers on both fronts and it hurts to watch.
Serendipity finds Jonathan Trager and Sara Thomas buying the same pair of cashmere gloves for their respective partners. After a brief conversation, they hit it off and spend the evening together in a great - platonic - way. Convinced there is destiny between them, they play an elevator game and get separated, but not after writing their phone numbers on a five dollar bill and in a novel respectively. Years later, both are ready to wed but they can't get the other out of their head and they wonder if there truly is fate.
Okay, so there are some real obvious variables here, but this film is just straight out horrible. From the beginning, we have the idea that fate will allow them to meet up. Fine. I can live with that. But the variables against them are staggering.
Jonathan Trager is a horrible character, first denying fate and then relying solely on it. Why does he bow to fate? I don't know. He's about to marry a woman he's been with for years! Why would he even be in a relationship with Halley if he only, obsessively, wanted Sara? And why does it take his impending marriage to get him to look for Sara the way he does?
The troubling aspect is the lack of compunction with which Johnathan searches. He has no emotional resonance toward the woman he is supposed to marry that makes him think about how much he will hurt her. And that's troublesome. How can we believe the power of the love he has for Sara when he is about to marry a woman and starts searching for another? It doesn't make sense. It doesn't play on our heartstrings or make us feel, it makes us want to throw something at the television and look in a thesaurus for more synonyms for "sleaze."
Add to that that Sara is in a similar predicament. The only saving grace there is that Sara's partner, Lars, is so wrapped up in his career that she comes across as empathetic. Halley and Jonathan, not so. She seems so supportive of him that it makes us want to slap Jonathan around a few times and ask, "What are you thinking?!"
Rounding out the film are the usual sidekicks, Jonathan's best friend Dean, who is in a marriage falling apart, an unsurprising revelation considering the amount of time he has to run around with Jonathan and Sara's friend Eve. Both are flat characters that add nothing of substance to the film, though Jeremy Piven's relentless overacting on Dean can be a detriment.
Even John Cusack, an actor I respect, is unable to save this work. Gone are his dazzling performances from Being John Malkovich and Cradle Will Rock. Here, he seems too often to not be trying to create someone different from his other roles. Instead, Jonathan is like a less interesting version of his role in Con Air. He's certainly working at the least empathetic I've ever seen him.
Beyond that, this film is an utter disappointment. There are no surprises and even the bright spot, a bit role that Eugene Levy brings to life, is stretched out too long. In fact, the film plays on coincidence with out two protagonists barely missing each other on the fateful day they are both in New York City. Scene after scene after scene after scene they miss one another until we are forced to sit up and yell "Enough already!"
But the end comes far too late, long after we've stopped caring and far far long after we had any hope for any single character in Serendipity.
For other works with John Cusack, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Hot Tub Time Machine
2012
Igor
1.5/10
For other reviews of movies, be sure to click here to visit my index page!
© 2011, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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