Serendipity (film)
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''Serendipity'' is a 2001 American romantic comedy film directed by Peter Chelsom, written by Marc Klein, and starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. The film grossed $77.5 million on a $28 million budget.


Plot

While Christmas shopping at Bloomingdale's in New York City, Jonathan Trager meets Sara Thomas when both try to buy the same pair of black cashmere gloves. Despite both being in relationships, a mutual attraction leads them to have dessert at a restaurant called Serendipity 3 where Sara explains that she lets fate's "little signals" determine many of her life decisions. After separating, they meet again when each returns to the restaurant to retrieve something they forgot. After ice skating, Jonathan convinces Sara to give him her number, but when the wind blows it out of his grasp, Sara thinks it is fate telling them to back off. After Jonathan disagrees, Sara decides to let fate reunite them: she has Jonathan write his number on a five dollar bill then uses it to buy breath mints and promises to sell her copy of '' Love in the Time of Cholera'' in which she will write her name and number. As one last experiment, Sara tosses Jonathan one of the gloves, they board separate elevators in the Waldorf Astoria and agree that if they arrive on the same floor, they are meant to be together. They each pick the same floor, but Jonathan is delayed finding Sara, leading her to believe that the experiment failed. Disappointed, they separate. Years later, Jonathan is an ESPN producer engaged to Halley and Sara is a therapist living in San Francisco, engaged to internationally-renowned musician Lars. Jonathan runs across his cashmere glove, so he embarks on a search of the city with his best friend, Dean, to find Sara. Meanwhile, Sara, stressed by the wedding planning and Lars’ focus on an upcoming world tour, travels to New York with her best friend Eve to find Jonathan. After nearly crossing paths with Jonathan throughout the day, Eve and Sara have dessert at Serendipity where Eve convinces Sara to give up her search. As Eve leaves, she picks up the 5 dollar bill with Jonathan's number on it that was left as their change. They catch the same cab that Jonathan and Dean exited while searching for Sara. After finding that a bridal shop next to Serendipity now occupies the address of a roommate finder service Sara once used, Jonathan sees it as a sign that he should marry Halley. At the Waldorf Astoria, Eve and Sara encounter Halley headed to the wedding rehearsal. Halley invites Eve to join her since they were friends in college, but Sara declines. Outside their room, she finds an apologetic Lars. At the rehearsal, Jonathan’s distracted demeanor frustrates Halley. She tearfully pleads with him to focus on the wedding and he reassures her that his reservations have let go of him. Halley then gives him Sara's old book containing her phone number as a wedding gift. Jonathan and Dean get her address and fly to San Francisco. Once there, they see Sara's sister and her boyfriend having sex and assume it is Sara in a happy relationship. Dean helps Jonathan realize that he shouldn’t marry Halley while Sara decides to end her engagement to Lars. The next day, Sara finds the 5 dollar bill with Jonathan's number on it, having gotten hers and Eve's wallets mixed up. After getting his address and being told by the building superintendent of his wedding at the Waldorf, Sara hurries there and is relieved to find the ceremony has been cancelled. Dean reassures Jonathan that he did the right thing and vows to be more spontaneous in his own marriage, which has been on the rocks. Jonathan wanders to the same ice skating rink where he spent part of his evening with Sara ten years earlier and finds a leather jacket on a bench. As it begins to snow, he lies on his back in the middle of the rink with the jacket as a pillow and one of the pair of cashmere gloves on his chest. When the matching glove lands next to him, he sits up and finds Sara watching him, having come to claim her jacket. They introduce themselves and finally share a kiss. Later they celebrate their anniversary at Bloomingdale’s in front of the display of cashmere gloves where they met.


Cast

* John Cusack as Jonathan Trager * Kate Beckinsale as Sara Thomas * Molly Shannon as Eve * Bridget Moynahan as Halley Buchanan * Jeremy Piven as Dean Kansky * John Corbett as Lars Hammond *
Eugene Levy Eugene Levy (born December 17, 1946) is a Canadian actor and comedian. From 1976 until 1984, he appeared in the Canadian television sketch comedy series '' SCTV''. He has also appeared in the '' American Pie'' series of films and the Canadian ...
as Bloomingdale's salesman (Macall Polay) * Marcia Bennett as Mrs. Trager * Eve Crawford as Mrs. Buchanan * Evan Neuman as Kenny * Buck Henry (''uncredited'') as himself * Lucy Gordon as Caroline Mitchell (Sara's sister) *
Kevin Rice Kevin Geoffrey Rice (born 13 January 1965) is a former English cricketer. Rice was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm off break. He was born in Morchard Bishop, Devon. Rice made his debut for Devon in the 1984 Minor Counties Champio ...
as Kip Mitchell * Gary Gerbrandt as Josh


Production

''Serendipity'' was shot in New Jersey, New York City, Ontario, and San Francisco, California in the summer of 2000. Following the 9/11 attacks, images of the World Trade Center towers were digitally removed from all skyline shots of New York City. Jennifer Aniston was offered the role of Sara Thomas but turned it down to avoid being type-cast in romantic comedies. Carla Gugino and
Claire Forlani Claire Antonia Forlani (born 17 December 1971) is an English actress. She became known in the mid-1990s for her leading role in the film ''Mallrats'', and in the Jean-Michel Basquiat 1996 biopic, ''Basquiat''. In 1998, she achieved wide recog ...
auditioned for role of Sara Thomas.


Release

''Serendipity'' premiered at the
2001 Toronto International Film Festival The 26th Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 6 to September 15, 2001. There were 326 films (249 feature films, 77 short films) from 54 countries scheduled to be screened during the ten-day festival. During a hastily arranged pres ...
. The film opened at #2 at the U.S. box office earning $13,309,241 in its opening weekend, behind '' Training Day''. With an estimated budget of $28 million, this was the first of Chelsom's films to turn a profit. After some of the biggest commercial failures of all time ('' Town & Country''), ''Serendipity'' marked the first of several box-office successes for Chelsom, peaking in 2009 with '' Hannah Montana: The Movie''. The film grossed $50,294,317 in the domestic box office and $27,221,987 internationally for a worldwide total of $77,516,304.


Reception

Based on reviews, the film holds approval rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of . The site's consensus states: "Light and charming, ''Serendipity'' could benefit from less contrivances." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 from 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film 1½ out of 4 stars. The New York Times gave it a mixed review and compared it to cinematic candyfloss.


Music

The soundtrack contains popular music by various artists, with one track from the musical score, composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri. * "Never a Day" - Wood * "Moonlight Kiss" - Bap Kennedy * "January Rain" - David Gray * " Waiting in Vain" -
Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the New wave music, new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician D ...
* "The Distance" - Evan & Jaron * "Like Lovers Do" - Heather Nova * "When You Know" - Shawn Colvin * "Black Eyed Dog" -
Nick Drake Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. He did not find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his work gradually achieved wider notice and recognit ...
* " Northern Sky" -
Nick Drake Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. He did not find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his work gradually achieved wider notice and recognit ...
* "Cool Yule" -
Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
* "This Year" -
Chantal Kreviazuk Chantal Jennifer Kreviazuk (; born May 18, 1974) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, composer, and pianist. Born in Winnipeg, she played music from a young age before signing with Columbia Records in the 1990s. Her debut studio album, ''Under These ...
* "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" - Brian Whitman * "'83" -
John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...
* "Fast Forward" - Alan Silvestri * "From Rusholme With Love" - Mint Royale Not included within the release of the soundtrack * "Someone Like You" - Van Morrison * "I'm Still in Love" - CoCo Lee (Asian movie theme song) * "Rose Rouge" - St. Germain


See also

*
Serendipity Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery. Serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery. Etymology The first noted use of "serendipity" was by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754. I ...
* Missed connection, where two people want to reconnect after an initial meeting but neither has the other's contact details. *
List of Christmas films Many Christmas stories have been adapted to feature films and TV specials, and have been broadcast and repeated many times on television; since the popularization of home video in the 1980s, their many editions are sold and re-sold every year d ...


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Serendipity (Film) 2001 films 2001 romantic comedy films American Christmas comedy films American romantic comedy films Films directed by Peter Chelsom Films scored by Alan Silvestri Films set in New York City Films set in San Francisco Films shot in California Films shot in New Jersey Films shot in New York (state) Films shot in San Francisco Films shot in Toronto Impact of the September 11 attacks on cinema 2000s Christmas comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films