Brilliant and touching

Beautiful, moving film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

"Serendipity" was not in my mind until a friend of mine recommended it last night. So, tonight I have seen it. It has 91 minutes of runtime, but it took more than two hours for me to finish it because almost each scene reminded me of something, therefore, I constantly needed to stop the film and take notes. So, in this review I am going to write mostly about those notes and thoughts.I had a couple of interactions with John Cusack in films like, 2012, 1403 and Hot Tub Time Machine, and decided that I don't really like his way of acting. He always seems cold and distant. I always failed to have a connection with him. "Serendipity" is the film where I made peace with him. Even though it is not a performance oriented film, I have enjoyed the chemistry between him and Kate Beckinsale. "Serendipity" is directed by Peter Chelsom. It was made with a budget of $28 Million and grossed around $77.5 Million. Even though it was made in the beginning of the 21st century, 2001, it still has the clear and relaxing atmosphere of the 90s romantic and comedies. "Serendipity" is a spiritually beautiful film just like its name. I didn't know the meaning of Serendipity, and after the film, I checked and found the following description; "the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way." Now the name makes perfect sense compared with its story.As I have mentioned above, "Serendipity" was made in 2001. Back then, English actress Kate Beckinsale was 28 years old. In one of the scenes Jonathan's (John Cusack) best friend tells him that "British women do not age well." Today, in the year 2018, Kate Beckinsale is 45 years old and still incredibly beautiful. Jonathan's best friend's statement is probably the only thing that is wrong about this film. Because of the high-level predictability, I found the story a bit boring. But, extremely romantic scenes, in the most unexpected times, made it up to me. It is a well-balanced film, and intended to be made with good and happy thoughts. I am one of those people who believe nothing really bad happens during the Christmas time. "Serendipity" starts in one of those peaceful moments in Christmas where everyone shops for their loved ones. So, based on my early theory, this film is going to be calm, good and peaceful. At the end of the film, I was proud to see that my theory turned out to be true. It was indeed calm, good and peaceful. In one of the scenes Sara (Kate Beckinsale) explains what a soul mate really means. She says that "I honestly think it's dangerous to use term "soul mate". It implies there's some magical element that we have no control over like fate or destiny. I think holding onto beliefs like that stops us doing the real work." She agrees for the fact that this is a special term and must be used only about someone really special. She tries to protect this special term from turning out to be like "I Love You" which, unfortunately, lost all its meaning long time ago and became a meaningless, empty statement. Sara is a woman who still believes in special things like love, fate, destiny and soul mate. This is the inner beauty of Sara, this is the beauty of "Serendipity."Both Jonathan and Sara have ideal partners who love and adore them, but when something doesn't supposed to happen, it is not going to happen. No matter how perfect things may seem, if those things are not in your destiny, they are not going to happen, or on the contrary, if something is meant to happen, it will happen no matter what. You may agree on this or not, but this is the only message "Serendipity" believes in, and shares with you. That being said, when you are making a film based on destiny, then you really need a character like Sara. In this point of view, character profiles are one of the strongest point of the film, as well as the beautiful soundtracks which are mandatory for a film like this."Serendipity" is going to shake some things up in your soul. It is a great film for a cold and rainy evening, and even a perfect one for the Christmas time. I had a lot of fun watching it. It is going to make you believe in something. After all, maybe I was destined to watch this film tonight. Who knows?

Serendipity is an adorable movie, or any of the words synonyms can apply: cute, sweet etc. Taking place during Christmas NYC the setting is magical and the big apple once again endears itself to the big screen. This is one of the best NYC movies in my opinion. Both Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack are in their element in this romantic-comedy. A great film to watch with a partner.

This is one of those movies where it doesn't matter how many times you watch it (more than 20 in my case), you'll enjoy it just as much the next time as the first. Yes, the plot has the writer pulling all kinds of "destiny" strings to weave a fun, light, romantic story. That is forgiven for the joy I get at every viewing. The basic premise is of two star-crossed lovers who are meant to be together with their human beliefs pushing them apart while the rest of the universe is trying to push them back together where they belong. It is so much fun watching this special pairing of John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale at their all-time best.This is classic John Cusack - the tortured, intelligent soul who falls for the perfect girl, then watches her disappear by her own "destiny" devices which crushes him. Five years later, he's engaged to someone else but can never get his perceived soul-mate out of his mind. There are times where Cusack (whom I adore) will overact/appear schizophrenic and sociopathic in some romantic comedies. This, however, is one of his best. He's simply believable and sympathetic in his quest to put right what went wrong so many years before.Kate Beckinsale --- With the exception of her character's "destiny-speak" at the opening, she's the most perfect leading lady in which Cusack will drop anything (and actually, everything if you think about it) to finally track down and begin a life together. Charming, beautiful, intelligent, flawed, strong... She's exceptional.Now, add Molly Shannon and Jeremy Piven as the equally-neurotic best friends of both our heroes, plus the added joy of watching the ever-reliable funnyman, Eugene Levy, stealing every scene in the Bloomingdale's search... The casting director deserves an honorary "Well done!" for their choices. Throw in the amazing New York skyline and Central Park in all it's splendor...This movie may not be perfect. But if you are thinking of watching a movie with your significant other to make you laugh, cry, hold onto one another in a romantic embrace so they never, ever go away... This is that movie. It never gets old. It seems fresh every time I see it. A great example was my 14yo foster daughter watching this for the first time. Her reaction as the lead characters miss each other by inches once again was - "I HATE this movie!!!"... Only to have her at the end tell me how much she LOVED the movie. It was awesome!!It isn't perfect, but compared to all the recent "The Notebook"-knockoffs filling up movie theaters and video rentals at an alarming rate considering they are neither good NOR romantic, I'd recommend renting this again simply for the "feel-good" factor. 9 out of 10 for sheer pleasantness and simplicity that makes me smile at the end every time.

..I liked this movie anyway. The two main reasons are Kate Beckinsale (this is the movie where I got the crush on her I still have to this day), and Jeremy Piven. I like John Cusack in just about everything I've seen him in, and he does fine here as Jonathan Trager, who's obsessing over whether he let Sara (Beckinsale), the woman who could be the love of his life, get away from him by letting her talk him into this stupid idea of leaving their future to chance after fate brought them together in the first place. They have a chance meeting at a department store, which leads to an amazing evening. But then Sara wants to leave things to chance by marking their information on a 5 dollar bill and a book and putting both out in circulation (there's also a ridiculous scene where they get on two elevators..if they end up on the same floor, they're supposed to be together). It's like..duh..fate already brought you two together..after that you've got to do some of the work on your own.Fast forward to a few years later. Jonathan and Sara are both getting married (to different people, naturally), but neither can get that chance meeting out of their minds, and both set out on a last ditch effort to find each other. The lengths that Jonathan in particular goes to, with the help of his best friend Dean (Piven, the straw that stirs the drink in this), make for a couple of priceless scenes, including one with an anal retentive clerk at the department store (Eugene Levy).Piven is perfect as Dean, who helps Jonathan in his search despite the fact that he thinks his soon-to-be married buddy is off his rocker (what best friends do). Toward the end, when it looks like all is lost, Dean marvels at what Jonathan has gone through to find Sara. He laments about how the passion which Jonathan put into his search is something he let slip away in his own marriage.It's this, plus the chemistry between Cusack and Beckinsale, that make this movie worth seeing despite the ridiculously silly premise..and predictable ending. Yes, it's a quintessential chick flick..perfect to watch with your spouse or significant other.