Will fate decide who you love? Director Peter Chelsom’s romantic comedy-drama Serendipity (2001) is really sweet, funny, and hopelessly romantic. I don’t believe your true love will magically find you by destiny, but Serendipity will certainly make you have faith in fate. It’s hilarious as a comedy, but the deeper romantic sentiment of finding the person you relate to, love talking to, and want to spend your time with them is your real soulmate. Serendipity gave me a warm feeling of genuine passion and a belief in true love. That’s what rom-coms are all about, so I have to say I adored revisiting Serendipity all these decades later since its release. Writer Marc Klein’s clever script combines the philosophical concepts of predetermination, missed opportunities, and a comedy of errors format into one really cute movie. All of this pain and searching across years could have been avoided if she had just introduced herself by name and given him her phone number. Serendipity is about strangers seeking each other and seeing signs in fate if they should be destined to be together. However, the lesson to really learn from all this is just ask out the person you like and try dating your crush? This is because these characters only find each other after passionately searching for their soulmate. If they had to do the work of looking, is that really fate? It’s all a choice despite the fun to think about philosophies within Serendipity. John Cusack is handsome, charming, funny, cool, and playful as the flirty Jonathan Trager. His forlorn romantic hero just wants to find his true love and he’s very relatable and natural in Serendipity. Kate Beckinsale is gorgeous and heartfelt as Sara Thomas, who also goes on a crazy journey to try to find Cusack. She comes across as very earnest and lovable too. John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale really only have a few scenes together, but they radiate romantic chemistry. Molly Shannon’s loyal gal pal Eve is hysterical with a healthy dose of reality for Beckinsale to hear. Jeremy Piven is hilarious as the guy friend Dean Kansky, but he puts the spirit of romance and true love as a force of destiny into Cusack during their blunt guy talks. Bridget Moynahan is sweet and touching as Cusack’s potential bride Halley Buchanan, who just wants to be loved. John Corbett is funny as Beckinsale’s goofy potential husband and raga-rock musician Lars Hammond. Eugene Levy is a riot as the fastidious Bloomingdale's salesman, who helps John Cusack track down Kate Beckinsale. Editor Christopher Greenbury’s swift cutting and sweeping montages of travel and time are so neat. Cinematographer John de Borman’s stunning close-up shots are movie magic. Composer Alan Silvestri’s soft guitar playing is so lovely for his romantic film score. I love all the random soft rock songs in Serendipity’s beautiful soundtrack. Costume designers Marie-Sylvie Deveau and Mary Claire Hannan provide stylish early 2000’s outfits for Kate Beckinsale that really flatter her. Makeup artists Margot Boccia, Jordan Samuel, Linda Grimes, and Carla White do really cute blushes on Beckinsale that make her glow. Hairstyling by Victor DeNicola, Werner Sherer, and Janice Miller give Beckinsale a super cute long bangs like the Rachel from Friends haircut. In short, Serendipity is a delightfully romantic and hopeful romantic comedy-drama about true love and fate. It’s a pleasure to revisit for 90 minutes after all these years.

I love this movie! John Cusack in his prime and the lovely Kate Beckinsale! It’s a classic romcom!

beeeeest, live laugh love

Cheesy, lots of plot holes and full of people lying and manipulating each other.

Lovely film that makes for an enjoyable watch.

Far fetched escapism totally unbelievable but still I loved great for romantics at hearth

Ohmigosh so stupid and awful. I really don’t even want to bother writing but I’m trying to save someone’s time. It’s basically two idiots who have a rando meet cute ( even tho they are both already in relationships) and then obsess over each other in a magic eight ball way till they f*ck over their current fiancés. At that point I had known for a while where it was going and I couldn’t take anymore. Plus my nails were dry so I could shut it off and go to bed. Basically hate watched that chit while I waited for polish to dry lol

Cusack is one of the most annoying and least talented of actors.

A complete disaster. A dumb story line, impossible to follow simply a movie that has no purpose. Please forget this one, do not was 5 minutes trying to understand this convoluted attempt at entertainment.

Best romance film we've ever seen. Never a dull moment.

I love this movie. The choice of actors for the cast is perfect. The story is of a chance meeting of two people who have a moment, and when they're about to marry other people, they become desperate to find each other. It's quite lighthearted in parts, bits are funny, it is highly entertaining overall. The reason I like it is because it reminds me that if you're thinking of someone from your past, you're not with the person in your present. And it reminds me that we can believe it "the one" even if it's only in movies.

Normally, I don't go for a movie in of this genre. But this film is good example as to why you should generally ignore all "critics" reviews. Make up your own mind. I watched it first over 10 years ago but me and the other-half occassionally watch it again ....at Christmas ! The plot is pretty guessable. Production is good. The acting is fine. But the biggest plus about the film is the soundtrack. It really is good. If you don't watch the film again. At least give the soundtrack a second listen.

La película juega con la moral humana y lejos de ser una cinta romántica, es un tema que se vuelve doloroso al trasladarlo a la realidad por la poca sensibilidad en el guion. ¿Romantizar el engaño?

Lite and sweet. I like to rewatch it once or twice a year.

Cusack is too intelligent an actor/character to be effective in all this silliness. The hilariously ridiculous coincidences the Beckinsale character dreams up to (seemingly) keep the two of them apart should have been a clearly recognizable clue to his character to keep his distance. At barely 90 minutes, the film seems long—there's nothing inspired or funny enough to maintain interest along the way plus, the inevitable ending is flat. However, Levy is very amusing in a few brief scenes—which thankfully detract a bit from the idiotic rom-com formula.

It's a light feel good Romcom set at Christmas nothing more nothing less

Serendipity (D+) It struggles to stand out amongst the crowd. There are much better rom coms from this era and this felt very reminiscent of the things that made the other rom coms good but not quite as well done here. I think that the concept of fate in rom coms is interesting to explore but the characters don't really seem to be all to shocked at all the ways fate plays with their lives. I feel like there is enjoyable performances but I wish the two leads got more time together. Most this movie is them apart with people they don't like which is a common plot point unfortunately for this era of rom coms. I wanted to see these charismatic characters together more and it just barely happens. All the situational humor here also felt very lazily done.

This was cute, kept watching for the twists, turns and funny bits; and to see how it might get resolved. Good cast. (Best bits, shopping for Prado wallet and I still don't know why there was a kid dressed up as a devil, was it Halloween? It was so random haha)

I think this movie is a lot better than most people would probably expect. John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale give really great performances and have great chemistry here, and there's some solid funny moments throughout. Better than most rom coms imo. The supporting cast is great too, with Jeremy Piven, Eugene Levy, Molly Shannon, and John Corbett all having some fun moments.

Excellent, old school rom-com with good acting abd a fun story. No cynicism allowed!