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?".

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

There are always those movies that get caught up in a critical or fan frenzy when they come out and become absolutely huge. Some of these movies are big movies to begin with and are elevated even further (The Dark Knight) and some of these incredibly praised films are at the complete opposite end of the spectrum so that when they begin to be praised so greatly they are elevated beyond the little films they are and raised onto a national or international platform. One of these little films that grew big was My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

I loved My Big Fat Greek Wedding when it came out. I thought it was just amazing. My opinion has changed since then; I was pre-film school at the time I saw the film, and while I had a large film vocabulary, I didn’t have a gigantic one like I do now. Rewatching this film I realized not that the film was bad, but that it possibly suffered from being elevated beyond its level. It is well written, it is well acted, the film is even pretty darn entertaining – but worthy of a Oscar nomination for best original screenplay? Probably not. I think this can partially be evidenced by the fact that a film lauded as much as this was when it was released no longer a part of pop culture, it is not referenced on any of the AFI lists, never on top 10’s, etc. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is good, but it was not capable of reaching beyond the small movie that it really was into the film cannon. That’s not to say it doesn’t have a place in people’s collections, or that it won’t be watched frequently by those that enjoy it – hey, it’s part of my DVD collection.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is in reality a very small, simple story. Toula is a child of parents who immigrated from Greece; pushing 30 she still lives at home and works for her parents because that is what’s expected – the only thing she hasn’t done as expected is get married. She finally gets so fed up at being unhappy all the time that she decides to change her life for the better and begins a journey of self discovery which leads her to meeting Ian Miller a non-Greek school teacher. Knowing that his non-Greek heritage will be as horrible to her family as telling them someone died she hides her relationship until it gets serious and eventually they become engaged which leads to the real comedy of the situation – the merging of the two cultures and families.

Nia Vardalos is pretty much 100% responsible for this adorable film. She wrote and acted in the play on which it is based, and wrote and is the main character in the film. With the help of Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks the film took off. What is great about this film is that it portrays a main character, the romantic heroine of the piece who is not your typical twiggy, perfect, proper girl. She is as close to a normal girl that film can get; that is really refreshing to see and it makes her character very relatable.

I know that I am partly to blame for my opinion on My Big Fat Greek Wedding changing some. My tolerance for romantic movies has gone down a great deal since I got out of high school, that trend started in me even before I hit film school.

Director: Joel Zwick
Writer: Nia Vardalos
Toula: Nia Vardalos
Ian: John Corbett
Gus: Michael Constantine
Maria: Lainie Kazan
Yiayia: Bess Meisler
Aunt Voula: Andrea Martin
Nick: Louis Mandylor
Angelo Joey Fatone
Mike: Ian Gomez

Toula Portokalos: Nice Greek girls who don't find a husband, work in the family restaurant. So here I am, day after day, year after year, thirty and way past my expiration date.