Well Deserved Praise

Good concept, poorly executed.

A different way of telling a story

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Having watched this clever film, all of us can relate to its message, and we can discuss the whys of our lives -- and, perhaps, we shall become somewhat dizzy during that exercise.This film, with the exception of the male nude scene, would be ideal for a classroom; it would serve as a springboard to a great discussion. Recently I thanked an "old" boyfriend for his decision to attend a certain college to which I, also, applied because of him. He did not attend, I did, and, of course, I met my future husband there."Happenstance" must be watched in one sitting since the cast of characters is rather large in number, and their lives are intertwined. I forgot all about the security guard with the dog and later the bug. Fast-forwarding slowly the DVD allowed me to refresh my memory; I watched this film over a period of three days; therefore, I did forget a few encounters.This is a fun-film to keep in mind for some light mental exercises. I agree with some other posters: the man in the park did not have to tell the viewers the point to all this.Good film -- stay awake for all of it.

The fact that a long series of little things and daily decisions, plus randon events, unalterably shapes our lives, has long interested me. If Ronald Reagan had not been governor of California in 1967, none of my children would have been born and I would have no doubt turned out quite differently. Or even if my friend Phil had not told me that he didn't have a date with Judy for our college graduation, which led to my eventually marrying her. Little, unpredictable things like that. A recent movie with Diane Lane, 'Unfaithful', is based precisely on this, a missed taxi. This movie, 'Happenstance', is squarely about those little things too. But it goes a step further -- what if everything happens for a reason, the idea of 'fate' rather than randomness. For a small movie, the DVD picture is as beautiful, sharp, and detailed as about any I have seen. The style and acting reminds one of 'Amelie', but this movie is totally different. A really nice and enertaining 93 minutes.SPOILERS are contained in the following comments, please read no further if you fear disappointment. However, it is the type of movie that could be watched 5 days in a row, and one would discover new fascinations each time.The movie starts on a train, a lady is reading Irene's (Tautou) horoscope, reads aloud her birthday, a young man with the same birthday overhears it, both of them learn they will find love under the full moon if they are patient. They never see each other again until the very end of the movie, when they sit back-to-back on a bench, both with bandaged noses, as 'good luck' sand is accidentally blown out of a second story window and onto them. The middle 90 minutes or so take us through a complex series of little things, experienced by a whole bunch of characters, all of which engineer unwittingly this 'not-so-chanceful' meeting of the two young people.Without a chart and pens to diagram, it would be impossible for a mere mortal viewer to understand all the connections of all the characters, but that isn't important. A man hitching a ride in a lettuce truck spills some, causing a man on a bicycle to crash, causing a son to see him and dream dad had died, which leads to mom visiting him in Paris causing him to deal with his affair. Playing chance a man says, 'If he makes this toss, I'll tell her everything.' Another man says to the pebble tosser, 'Miss it on purpose, that man will act on something if you make it, so we can change his decision.' A grandma complains about a coffee maker, a bystander who was there only because of a prior conversation in a coffee shop overhears, feels the grandma is treated poorly, steals a coffee maker to give to her, but her bus goes away too quickly, Irene gets fired for it, he gives it to Irene who leaves it at the station, suspecting a bomb the train skips that stop, the young man looking up his former girlfriend who found him after a pidgeon pooped on some photographs misses his stop, is late for the meeting, the girl leaves, sees a man in a yellow coat, thinking it is the thief pushes him down, bloody nose, he meets up with Irene in the end. The whole movie is like that, it is mesmerizing, the way connection after connection is depicted. Fun to watch, and almost impossible to keep track of.

Do you know about the Butterfly Effect? Sure you do. Jeff Goldblum explained it in Jurassic Park: "A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking, and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine." As one might guess from the title itself, Happenstance is all about randomness and chance. It details how the tiniest of events can lead to a particular outcome--in this case, the uniting of two soulmates.Happenstance adheres strictly to its philosophy, perhaps to a fault. The film skips from person to person in what is quite a large ensemble cast, itemizing how each of them contributes to the system. Due to the intricacies of details involved, in order to bring the audience to the "main" characters' resolution, it fails to follow up on supporting players, many of whom shared as much screen time as the leads. As a result, audiences might be left with more questions than what answers the ending provides. This might be solved by extending the length of the film to follow the other characters, but Happenstance borders on sluggishness at 90 minutes. Still, because of the film's constant reverence to its notions of chance and fate, it leaves us with a sense of faith that "happenstance" will come to everyone in their own turn.With such a large cast, it's surprising that there seem to be no weak links among them.We get to see a different side of Audrey Tautou's spectrum than the naive, wide-eyed dreamer we're familiar with... Here, she's a bit cynical, certainly a realist, and at times, rather self-centered. Her eyes and head hang a little low, and the pixie we watched in Amélie practically disappears. As with He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, this film is not a great challenge to her acting abilities, but she provides a simple role with solid performance.The same can be said with all the cast, though it's a bit challenging to match actors' names with the characters' faces. They each play his or her role evenly, with a unique and distinguishable set of strengths and weaknesses.Such characterization was obviously well thought out by Laurent Firode, who wrote and directed Happenstance. He does a magnificent job at characterization, and one wonders how great he might do with a film focused on two or three main characters. His visual style, while not overpowering, also contributes greatly to the presentation of detail in the film.Don't rent this expecting Audrey Tautou in every scene, but if you wish to sample some more of her acting, or if you're just interested in an intelligent foreign film, Happenstance should leave you happy.

How do you spell "sux" in French? How about "snore"? Even "Magnolia" was better than this tripe (another French delicacy, by the way) and it was about 3 hours too long. But that's another topic for another day. PS if you see this just to see "Amelee" (Audrey Tautou) forget it > she's only onscreen for about 1/2 an hour.