Happenstance
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Movie Reviews of Happenstance
Movie Review: a not very memorable ensemble film
Summary: 3 Stars
A film by Laurent FirodeThere is an idea that life is made up of a serious of coincidences and that any small action can have a wide ranging effect and connection to the lives of various people in ways that we cannot even imagine. Little events can affect big events even though the two are not truly related, at least not in any way that we can directly see. It is like the butterfly in Egypt flapping its wings and causing a hurricane over the Pacific Ocean. This is the overriding idea of "Happenstance".
The movie opens with Irene (Audrey Tautou) on the subway. A lady sitting across from her is reading Irene's horoscope and tells Irene that soon she will meet her soul mate. Irene gets off the train and the scene changes. From here we are brought into the lives of multiple people (men and women) living in Paris. We see their actions and how their actions affect each other. Even though Irene opens and closes this film, it is not truly about her and she is a more minor character than I had expected (or hoped).
It is interesting to see how all these lives intersect and affect each other, but even with the ending wrapping things up, "Happenstance" did not feel like it truly amounted to much, or did a good enough job making me care about any of the characters (except Irene, but that may be because of Tautou). It was difficult for me to engage with any of the characters, or find any of them memorable (though some of the intersecting events I can remember, but not the characters themselves).
The best I can say is that "Happenstance" was just okay. Despite Tautou being all over the cover/poster for this film, she is not the star, this is a true ensemble piece. The ensemble just didn't add up to a strong whole.
-Joe Sherry
Movie Review: Not the best Audrey Tautou movie
Summary: 3 Stars
After havine recently watching "Amelie" with Audrey Tautou, I set out to find other films she's done and came across this one.
It had some pretty good reviews, so I took a chance and ordered it.
After having watched it, I'll probably be donating it to my library and gettng rid of it. It's not a horrible movie, but it really didn't impress me much.
None of the actors really made me feel anything for them, and since I mainly got it for Adurey Tautou I was particularly disappointed with her character. She doesn't have a big part in this movie and when she is in it, she's just seems to be standing there while things happen.
The premise of the film leads you to believe "what if THIS happened, instead of THAT", but they really don't explore the different possibilites that could happen. The movie just rolls along doing it's thing until it's over with.
I've seen quite a few foreign films so I understand that they aren't like our American "Hollywood" films, but this film left me without even wanting to think about it afterwards. I was just glad it was over so I could take it out of my player and watch something else.
If you like Audrey Tautou, this really isn't a great showcase for her acting abilites.
If you like movies that explore the "what if" aspect of certain actions and their consequences, this doesn't really play out like that.
I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone, actually. I just didn't find it to be as good as I was lead to believe.
Movie Review: Enjoyable movie, but not great
Summary: 3 Stars
First off, i have to put up my dukes to the dude who said this movie was like a funny, or "happy" Magnolia. I don't know how in the world you can make such an impression, this doesn't resemble Magnolia in any way except that unknown people are related in the end. Don't get the wrong impression folks. Anyways to get to the movie, it didn't live up to what i guess i was expecting. The movie sounds better than it is, but! but! it is still mildly enchanting, making you tilt your end in the end and go, "uh... interesting." It's by no means awful, meaning i'd watch it countless more times if the opportunities presented themselves, but it is neither a classic movie. The writing is amazing, but the way they sometimes act it across can be a little bit of a "let's go already". i'd still say see it, it's good, interesting destiny sort of interest.Movie Review: Not as great as I had hoped.
Summary: 3 Stars
I loved Audrey Tautou in Amelie and like many people, had pretty high expectations for this movie. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed. While Tautou was great, the movie was slow and I was bored. The story just wasn't as riveting or enjoyable as I had hoped. My friend's DVD player was on the fritz and we had problems watching the movie, so we ended up skipping ahead to the last chapter to see what the outcome was. After all the slowness, the end was predictable.Movie Review: entertaining, cute, with lots of potential
Summary: 3 Stars
There's art, mystery, love and more. It's just that you are caught up in so many stories at once and then at the end just one story is finished. There is a lot of development in the beginning of the movie, but at the end it seems to finish in a rush.The ideas are great and could be further developed, I think Amelie does that more. It's entertaining with some magic and charm, but doesn't quite make it.
It's worth seeing once, but probably not buying