"Serendipity" is the ultimate in deja viewing:an overfamiliar and exasperating game of cat-and-mousie from the brains behind "The Wedding Planner," "Pay It Forward" and "She's All That."
John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale play a fellow and a girl who meet while doing some last-minute holiday shopping in Manhattan. Their eyes meet as each reaches for the same pair of cashmere gloves, the only black ones left on the shelf so late in the season. He gallantly insists that she take them and in return, she buys him coffee and dessert at her favorite restaurant, Serendipity.
John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale star in "Serendipity."
(Miramax Films)
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The two spend a magical night together -- skating at Rockefeller Center, gazing at the constellations (never mind that you couldn't see the stars for the city lights) and frolicking in the snow. At the end of the evening, he asks for her number but she refuses, insisting that they will meet again if fate allows.
To that end, she writes her name and phone number in a copy of "Love in the Time of Cholera" and he writes his on a $5 bill. They promptly spend the one and, the next day, she sells the novel to a used-book store. Should either find one of the items, it's kismet.
A few years later, each is about to wed, but both are haunted by the memory of that special night and the feelings they had for each other. Before they can say "I do" to their intendeds, they must satisfy their curiosity. A string of predictable near-misses ensues: The only diversion from the routine is provided by the supporting cast.
You know you've got trouble when the secondary characters are more intriguing and the supporting players more compelling than the leads. Cusack, bored and listless, can hardly summon the energy to gather posies, much less take the bland Beckinsale to his bosom.
But in a handful of scenes with the inimitable Eugene Levy as a Bloomingdale's salesman, Cusack has a worthy foil and the pace picks up threefold. The same goes for the star's affable relationship with wry Jeremy Piven, a longtime friend of Cusack who fills a similar role on-screen.
Beckinsale's role is so thin, she might as well have been a tissue-paper doll; she, too, is seriously upstaged, by John Corbett ("Sex in the City"), hilarious as a self-absorbed cross between sitarist Ravi Shankar and sax man Kenny G.
Peter Chelsom, who directed the delightfully offbeat "Funny Bones" and "Hear My Song," was also behind the camera of "Town and Country," most assuredly the year's biggest bomb. Unfortunately, some filmmakers just can't make the transition from thoughtful independent cinema to the Hollywood machine. Destiny has not smiled on that journey.
Serendipity(85 minutes, at area theaters) is rated PG-13 for sex scenes and some language.
