Serendipity

Jonathan Trager & Sara Thomas are two strangers in New York madly trying to Christmas shop when they have their meet-cute over a pair of black cashmere gloves. While the two flirt and eventually go to coffee together Sara refuses to believe John’s insistence that they met for a reason until some happy accidents begin to make her think that perhaps this is kismet – but she won’t fall for it. So Sara writes her number inside a book and says she’ll sell it to a used book store, and makes John write his number on a $5 bill on the condition that when either of them finds the other’s number again they’ll know fate wants them together. A few years pass and neither one finds the other, but both are engaged to great people and can’t shake the memory of meeting each other. The weekend before each of their weddings they decided to test fate and see if they can force destiny into finding each other again.

Serendipity is a silly movie, but it is very close to a modern fairy tale and I think that is why I love it – John Cusack & Kate Beckinsale are of course a major reason as well. Kate & John have a great onscreen chemistry which is really important as they actually are apart for most of the movie – this really is a different version of Sleepless in Seattle but the way it is executed makes the film feel entirely fresh.

I think this might be the movie that placed Jeremy Piven on my radar. Serendipity was before Entourage and all the roles that Ari Gold brought him. Piven plays Dean Kansky, Jonathan’s best friend and best man who is also an obit writer for the NY Times. He is all attitude and everything the supportive best friend should be. To quote the film Dean is a “jackass” and it’s a ball to watch.

I used to think that Serendipity was a Christmas movie and watching it again I am not quite sure why. The film may be set during the holiday season, but that is incidental a framing for the meet-cute. I enjoy this movie and the only thing I would change is to give Cusack and Beckinsale more screen time together.

Director: Peter Chelsom
Writer: Marc Klein
Jonathon Trager: John Cusack
Sara Thomas: Kate Beckinsale
Dean Kansky: Jeremy Piven
Lars Hammond: John Corbett
Eve: Molly Shannon
Salesman: Eugene Levy
Halley: Bridget Moynahan

Dean: You know the Greeks didn't write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: "Did he have passion?".

For Your Consideration

Home for Purim is a little drama filled with a fine cast who have all put their time in and are well seasoned actors. They are dedicated to making the best film they can but think nothing of their little movie – until an internet rumor about Marilyn Hack getting an Oscar nomination starts. From there the buzz really begins, soon two of the other lead actors get Oscar buzz as well and suddenly the little movie explodes into a potentially big movie and everyone in the cast, crew and press gets caught up in the Hollywood rollercoaster.

Christopher Guest has had a very long string of quirky comedies to his name and For Your Consideration is one of the most biting of his films. This is a film about the razor edge of Hollywood, it’s the dark underbelly that is self-obsessed, and self-serving. Guest manages to bring humor and satire into the Hollywood mentality; he shows that while most actors say they act for the art of it a greater part of them than they’d like to admit really wants the fame and the accolades.

The fun and somewhat unexpected part of For Your Consideration is that it shows the full cycle these actors go through from production, to publicity and the reception of their film, when the nominations are released and the after. It covers everyone from the producers, the hair-brained director, the writers, to the entertainment newscasters.

If you’ve never liked any of Guest’s other films then I should say that you really won’t enjoy For Your Consideration. But if like me, you have an appreciation for Guest’s humor and especially if you love movies about movies then you need to see For Your Consideration.

Director: Christopher Guest
Writers: Christopher Guest & Eugene Levy
Marilyn Hack: Catherine O’Hara
Sandy Lane: Ed Begley Jr.
Morley Orfkin: Eugene Levy
Victor Allen Miller: Harry Shearer
Corey Taft: John Michael Higgins
Whitney Taylor Brown: Jenniger Coolidge
Callie Webb: Parker Posy

Corey Taft: In every actor there lives a tiger, a pig, an ass, and a nightingale.