Stop and think. Destiny- letting life decides its own course of action. Karma- taking charge of life in our own hands & making things happen.
Which would you chose. Which theory would you follow. Or do you believe that life is an unpredictable diverse mix of both! Well this movie sure is!
The story:
Jonathan bumps into Sara in a crowded departmental store amidst fanatical Christmas shoppers. Destiny brings the two together to the same store & to pick the same pair of gloves! A friendly argument, a coffee and some amount of ice skating later, they feel hopelessly attracted to each other. At this time of their lives their seeing other people in spite of which John coaxes Sara to give him her phone no—so they could be in touch, but in spite of him pestering she refuses. Her take on this is that they should leave it to fate to determine whether or not they should be together. So in order to give fate a “helping hand”, she hands over the 500 dollar bill on which he’d written his number to a shop keeper in order to circulate in the infinity & she writes hers on a book- which she sells to some random shop. She says that if either of them finds the book or the bill, bingo! Fate has plans & they’re definitely meant for each other!
So they depart… without any information about the other, not even last names and as fate would have it- years pass by!
Scene cuts to several years later- where they’re engaged to their respective beaus & are living blissfully in their own worlds. Blissful it may appear to be, but they both have this nagging uncertainty that leads to each of them questioning their decision to settle down with their partners, as they cannot give up their dream. They cannot forget the magical evening they spent with each other years ago. They just cannot seem to give up the nagging doubt of whether the two of them were actually meant for each other. To add to all of it, they come across signs everywhere reminding them of that fateful evening!
So taking a mental break from their respective obligations & with extremely limited time in their hands, they each set out to hunt for each other.
There are a lotta twists & turns & there are plenty of times when the Sara & John almost bump into each other. For E.g.; John’s having his wedding at a hotel- where Sara & her friend have put up! In fact Sara’s pal bumps into her old friend who is incidentally John’s fiancé and even goes to attend the wedding rehearsals- clueless about the fact that Jonathan is THE John! Then there’s added complexity in John’s search when he does get a lead - reaches Sara’s home & mistakes someone else to be her!
Performances:
John Cusack (Runaway Jury, Being John Malkovich) & Kate Beckinsale (Van Helsing, The Aviator) are awesomely charming enough to make us fall in love with their story. In the entire movie, we can truly feel their aching desire to meet each other and are we get all charged up so they could meet! The stellar supporting cast has also given a perfect finish to the movie.
Jeremy Piven (The family man) as John’s best friend has remarkable comic timing & our hearts go out to him when he opens up about his seemingly perfect marriage. Also when he tries to cheer John up (when the search aint going well) saying “oh British women don’t age well”; or especially in his opening scene when he’s raising a toast on the night of John’s engagement saying “who else will know except me, his first wife!”
John Corbett (My big fat greek wedding) plays the role of Sara’s finance- a musician with some sort of eclectic eastern influence.He plays a character who loves Sara a lot, but is too self absorbed in his own world of music, concerts, schedules etc and his sweetness is overshadowed by his career ambitions. He expects Sara to smoothly blend into his world.
Molly Shannon (Never been kissed, superstar) plays Sara’s best friend, some one who in spite of running a tantra store strictly warns Sara to stay clear of “signs” and all this mumbo-jumbo of destiny!
Well guys!
The movie is a heart warming blend of comedy & romance. The irony of how they pushed things away when fate had actually got them together – and on the other hand how they fervently hunted for each other in spite of fate from keeping them apart- has been shown brilliantly. This movie is definitely worth watching – especially for the sweetness of it all!
Titbits: The film is named after the real-life restaurant "Serendipity III" which is featured in the film as the site of the couple’s first date.