Happy Accidents
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Movie Reviews of Happy Accidents
Movie Review: No Accidents Here -- A Well-Crafted Movie!
Summary: 4 Stars
"Happy Accidents" is a love story set in New York City: The perfect date movie for a romantic woman and the nerdy guy who cannot seem to stay away from Star Trek conventions. The lead male, Sam Deed (Vincent D'Onofrio), claims to be a back-traveler. That's right, he is from the future, 2470. Or is he? Ruby Weaver (Marisa Tomei) thinks she has found the perfect guy. However, the plot begins to take strange turns as Sam reveals his past is actually the future. He is from Dubuque, Iowa on the Atlantic coast.
Ruby does what any good recovering co-dependent would do, she asks her therapist (Holland Taylor) for advice. The therapist notifies Ruby that Sam is suffering from TLE, a rare illness which results in an overactive imagination. But poor Ruby has already fallen for Sam. Her best friend, Gretchen (Nadia Dajani), tells Ruby to make the time-travel bit a game the two can play.
"Happy Accidents" is an intriguing movie that captures your attention from the get-go. Vincent D'Onofrio ("Steal This Movie" and "The Cell") plays the charming, child-like character of Sam perfectly. On their first date, Sam arrives at Ruby's apartment with a handful of oldie records while Ruby is dolled up expecting to go out. Humor ensues as Sam does not know how to use the record player. His naiveté is irresistible. You quickly learn that Sam is ignorant about many common things. However, he can rattle off future events as if recalling historic facts.
Ruby's game with Sam begins to become harder to play. Sam persists with his time-travel story and inevitably the tension rises between the two. Marisa Tomei, of "My Cousin Vinny" fame, plays the confused, lovelorn Ruby with dead-on facial expressions that showcases the anguish she is harboring. She is torn between her feelings for Sam, common sense, suggestions from her therapist and her faithful friend Gretchen.
The closing scenes reach a fever pitch. Sam tells Ruby that her death is imminent. He insists she stay home all day. Ruby finally capitulates and listens to Sam's advice by barricading herself home. But as fate would have it, Sam gets called away for an emergency at work. In the meantime, Ruby decides to call the number on the back of Sam's family photos. The response she hears leads her to flee the apartment and to leave Sam for good.
The climax stunningly reveals the truth. The movie's details push headlong into a rush that will leave your mouth gaping and trying to remember previous details that seemed unimportant (but now crucial) when first presented. "Happy Accidents" is no accident - a well-crafted movie.
Bohdan Kot
Movie Review: Even for those who don't like that sci-fi thing
Summary: 4 Stars
Not a big fan of time travel, science fiction, so on...I'm just not. But here is a movie that has time travel-y stuff that I actually (a)watched the whole thing and (b) would recommend. Why? Because the time travel is really incidental. I mean, sure, that's the reason why things happen and everything, but you're not beaten over the head with it.
I'd like to say that this is a wonderful, so romantic love story, but then I'm afraid that some people (those sap-avoiders, often the menfolks)will avoid it. Don't. It's a movie that even they will like. The secret is that, while the story would sound silly to anyone, the actors are so committed to the reality of who they are and what they're doing that it works. What a difficult thing to pull off.
I'm not a big Marisa Tomei fan, but here she's so delightful, full of non-annoying energy and so real. I mean, she is sort of the stand in for the rest of the audience, and she plays that disbelief well. How often do you see a movie where the normal, rational person just buys the lunacy of another--something that a real person wouldn't do? She has the right reactions and emotions.
It's just one of those satisfying movies, where all of the little bits and clues work and pull everything together, without making the viewer feel like they've been tricked or taken advantage of. Humor and grace, but enough whatever it is to keep it from being a stereotypical chick flick. The ending is actually, suprisingly moving. I really did not think I'd see the movie at all, then thought that I wouldn't enjoy it, and then I was so glad I did.
One little note, though--if you listen to the commentary, which I usually do, it claims to be between the director and actor Vincent D'Onofrio (whom I adore in this, but I always do and am not too objective, so I'll leave that out). Instead, it's almost a monologue by the director. Don't know if Vincent wasn't feeling participatory that day or if the director is just particularly chatty, but I wanted more--more about playing Mr. Future and all of the stories that the character of Sam had to keep together. Anyway. Minor thing.
One other thing--the scene where Sam has Ruby lick his finger and then shows what the future is like is worth the whole price of the movie.
Movie Review: Far-Fetched Premise Combines With Charming Idiosyncrasies in Original Love Story
Summary: 4 Stars
I actually think this 2001 low-budget, indie film has a quirky charm that's hard to resist, and credit goes to director/writer/editor Brad Andersen's singular filmmaking style. It's ostensibly a contemporary love story between two misfits, but he laces the plot with science fiction elements that seem contrived at first until they start to affect the characters tangibly. The irony is that these far-fetched plot developments are what make the movie resonate emotionally. The two people at the center are Ruby Weaver, a single woman with an unfortunate track record of enabling men to meet her lowest expectations, and Sam Deed, a stranger from Dubuque who may be either mentally ill or a time traveler from the year 2470. Ruby is immediately drawn to Sam's sincerity but when he confesses to coming from the future, she inevitably feels like she is recycling old behavior by trying to save him from his delusions.
It reminds me a bit of John Carpenter's 1984 "Starman" (where an alien takes the form of a woman's dead husband) and a touch of Hal Ashby's 1979 "Being There" (where an insulated gardener tries to make sense of the world around him). However, Anderson puts his own idiosyncratic stamp on the movie by making Sam's seemingly insane assertions credible and Ruby's attraction alternately frustrating and empathetic. The acting by the two leads helps considerably here. Suffering from premature Oscar ejaculation, Marisa Tomei has slowly recovered her acting credentials, and this performance is among her best as she dexterously brings out all the hesitation and vulnerability in Ruby. As Sam, Vincent D'Onofrio tempers his trademark intensity with a genuine sweetness that makes his child-like wonder believable. Holland Taylor effectively tones down her sassy persona to play Ruby's impervious therapist, while Tovah Feldshuh grounds the film with warmth and sensibility as Ruby's mother. The ending is clever with a nice use of stop-motion photography, even if it felt slightly derivative of the legendary "Star Trek" episode where Bones is stopped from saving a peace-loving missionary (played by Joan Collins, of all people) about to be killed. This one is more infectious than you may be assuming from the set-up.
Movie Review: An enjoyable movie
Summary: 4 Stars
A wonderful movie about the relationship between a woman, Ruby(Marisa Tomei), who has a bad history with men and Sam(Vincent D'Onofrio). Ruby usually becomes connected to men who have problems. She is the consumate enabler until she gets to a breaking point. Sam is a quirky young man who works in a hospice. He is always drawing on a large tablet. Ruby finds Sam gentle and spontaneous. He will drop everything to buy her flowers even though he didn't know a carnation from a rose.
Ruby finds Sam's tablet by accident and it reveals the name Christie DeLancey along with a picture of a pretty woman. Devastated, Ruby now beleives that Sam is cheating on her. Instead of the old lies all woman/men have heard, Sam tells her that he is from the year 2470 AD. He has traveled into the past to find her. Christie DeLancey is another "back traveler" and his contact in 1996. She gets him his phoney documents and show him how to "flag" a cab. Though I think all "back traveler" contacts should enclude a tour of the public library in their tour of the past. But I suppose that would make the character of Sam less charming. In an effort to show her how "back travel" works, he slides his hands on her leg
Ruby then decides he is crazy and that he is yet another misfit that she "should" take care of. She prepares to end the relationship, but her best friend, Gretchen(Nadia Danjani) tells her it's all about sex. She is told it's a sex game and play along.
In the end we learn whether Sam is crazy or not, but whether he is or not this is a romantic comedy that anyone might enjoy. I own it and have watched it several times since I got it.
Movie Review: I Can't Wipe this Smile Off My 4 Stars
I was definitely in the mood for an uplifting, life affirming movie and so, by way of recommendations from friends, I went to see "Happy Accidents." The first thing that struck me about half way though this movie was that I was smiling...a lot. But I tend to do that when Marisa Tomei is around. Is there any other actress currently performing that is so emotionally open and accessible? So what was it? Was it the fact that the script was a Hoot? ("He could tell the photograph was of people from New York since they were all wearing black and holding apple martinis.") Could it be Vincent D'Onofrio's oddball performance as a man "from the future?" Maybe, but D'Onofrio has made a career of such parts and for once his physical ticks and shtick work for him instead of against. Could it be that Brad Anderson's direction held the fine line between farce and drama as tight as a drum? Well, of course it was all of these things. Anderson is now a talent to be reckoned with as evidenced here and in the deadly serious, scary, other-worldy "Session 9." On the surface these 2 movies would seem to have nothing in common. But on closer inspection it can be noted that they share a profound and heartfelt love of the creeps and geeks of the world as well as a like love for the unexplainable and unpenetrable. "Happy Accidents" is basically about the redemptive and cleansing qualities of love. And boy....we need a lot of that stuff these days.