I had trouble deciding on which photo to use with my review of this movie. It was either this one, or the one I ended up using. See, while Mirimax chose to market this film as a romantic comedy about a heterosexual couple, I think there is a far more interesting relationship to be found in this film. If you're like me and you like to explore the more subtle possibilities of a movie, you'll see why my decision to go with The Piven photo was the only reasonable choice to make.
Let me back up a bit here. Okay, so Jonathan Trager (such a made-up name), played by mi amour John Cusack, has a Meet Cute (to use an Ebertism) in a tony New York City department store with...a woman who refuses to reveal her name, for whatever reason (Kate Beckinsale). They meet while fighting over a pair of cashmere gloves, but this isn't important; it's a mere contrivance to show us that they're cosmically linked. They have all these freaky things in common, like taste in gloves, choice of elevator button, and most importantly, bad hair. Hoo boy, do these folks have some bad hair when they meet. Beckinsale, whose character we later learn is named Sarah Thomas, is working the frizzies in the film's early scenes, while Cusack is going for the mullet. Okay, it's not quite a mullet. But it's long and shaggy, and John, honey...what happened?
Yet both Jonathan and Sarah have significant others, so Sarah, being the New Age flake that she is, decides that if they truly are meant to be together, Fate will intervene. She writes her phone number in a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera and resolves to sell it to a used bookstore the next morning. If he ever finds it, it means they're meant to be together. Or, if she's lucky, maybe someone else who buys the book will give her a call, or you know, stalk her.
Fast-forward a few years. Sarah's living in San Fran, and she dresses in black now, so we know She's Lost Her Whimsy. She's betrothed to a New Age musician (played by John Corbett, who actually does a credible job--at first, I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to take his music seriously). Jonathan's engaged to a beautiful woman (Bridget Moynahan), who doesn't do much more than stand around looking beautiful. Yet neither Sarah nor Jonathan can shake the feeling that maybe their current relationships are not meant to be--and who can blame them, what with Fate pushing his agenda on them with little reminders of one another everywhere they go?
It's a cute movie, but the concept is really tired. As are the myriad artsy time-lapse photography shots of sundials, clocks, and clouds moving, because I do believe that we get it: time is passing us by, and we're all going to die. On the upside, the near-encounters the pair keep having are appropriately frustrating and fun, and there's a good injection of comedy, thanks to Molly Shannon, playing Sarah's best friend, and of course, Jeremy Piven, as Jonathan's buddy, Dean.
If you're not familiar with The Piven, this might be a good film to start with. I myself prefer the early Piven oeuvre, such as Lucas and of course, Say Anything, another film Piven made with his real-life friend Cusack. He does a great job here as The Guy Who Only Wants His Friend to Be Happy, but I wish someone would wake up and give the guy a leading role for a change.
Now, I'm not about to theorize that the reason Dean is initially so reluctant to help Jonathan find Sarah is that he's secretly in love with him. But hey, Dean even calls himself Jonathan's "first wife" at one point! And watch closely during the scene where Jonathan thinks he's discovered Sarah in flagrante delicto with another man (look at me go, with the multilingualism today): Piven sheds a single tear at the sight of his friend's devastation. Now, I know I can't be the only one who thinks this might have been a better movie if Jonathan had ended up with Dean rather than flaky, frizzy-haired, fatalistic Sarah, am I? Seriously, I think even Fate would agree in this case: screw the wimmin, bring on The Piven!
-reviewed by the ladybug, Apr. 17, 2002
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