MovieChat Forums > Serendipity (2001) Discussion > Anyone else thought this movie was unrea...

Anyone else thought this movie was unrealistic/ not believable

posted 14 years ago by joeyjmpoff
18 replies | jump to latest

My main problem is these 2 characters hit it off & part ways. Now several years later they are both in healthy relationships. Yet on their time to get married, they want to ditch their partners to search for the people they had 1 good evening with.

I mean its not like they actually knew each other well, barely knew eachothers names. Yet they want to break up with their future spouses for them. I dont buy spending 5 hours with someone , 5 years ago makes you want to drop everything. Its like 5 hours outweigh 5 good years in this movie.

[–] Florianopolis 13 years ago

I agree. If they were in unhealthy relationships, i could see why they may at times, think about the chance encounter they had with each other. I actually just saw this movie for the first time, on the E Network. It's possible, that it would have been different if I saw the movie when it intially came out. But, the idea is still the same. And, it is not at all believable. Especially not in NYC. NYC has way too many people. Anyway, I know alot of young women like this movie, but it makes me wanna puke

[–] LoizaAldea 13 years ago

To most people this movie comes off as unrealistic. Could it be that it's because most just haven't seen situations like this happen? Before I watched this movie I believed it and have seen it. But, for whatever reason seeing the movie touched me more than seeing the real life people meet up again after being apart for over 35 years.

My mom and her husband met as teenagers, dated briefly but ended going their separate ways. After 35 yrs they ran into each other and kinda picked up where they left off. So, it is possible.

[–] joeyjmpoff 13 years ago

Sorry tht is not the same thing. These 2 were strangers & spent a wopping 5 hours together. Then 5 years later they didnt run into each other. They went out there way to find one another.

So that is nothing like the situation you presented.

[–] LoizaAldea 13 years ago

You said that is doesn't seem like realistic that something like that could happen. So, I was only using my moms reconnection as an example. Regardless to whether they were strangers and/or searched for each other or not, they reconnected after years apart.

[–] xela23 13 years ago

I get it. I've experienced something similar - someone you know for only a day or two and never forget about, even if your memory of them is vague.

I can see how you think it's unrealistic but when you experience meeting someone so perfect for you, it's hard to not compare every person you're with to that person, and secretly prefer to be with that person.

[–] LoizaAldea 13 years ago

I understand evey single thing you have said in your post. I'm going through exactly that.

[–] JukeBox-Bill 13 years ago

Movies are not supposed to be realistic. Live itself is real enough, you don't need movies for realism.

[–] vladoots 13 years ago

During her interview for the December 2011 issue of Cosmo, Little Red Riding Hood revealed that The Big Bad Wolf ate her only figuratively, and that the experience was great.

Can you believe that? And, do you still like the story?

[–] jdown-1 13 years ago

Perhaps. But the script goes to great lengths to show that this was more than just 5 h of hanging out, then a polite, See ya. John & Sarah part after their frozen chocolate; then, they return at the same time to retrieve a forgotten item. It's a pivotal moment in the film - the looks on their faces show they realize that something special is happening.

Then the setups: his name, which she does not know, on a $5 bill that goes out into the world; her name, which he does not know, in a book that does likewise. From that point on, both are obsessed by what seem to be signs, and the romantic notion that fate might bring them together again.

For me, Serendipity is a charming take on the idea of 'what might have been' that all of us feel as we go through life.

[–] Peridot 12 years ago

I finally watched this movie for the same time and was just going to write a post on the same thing.

First of all... I'm in the genre these kind of films are made for.. female, 15-40ish,etc... I love romantic comedies and I like almost everyone I've seen. but...
I HATED this movie. Why? It was SO ridiculously unbelievable it's not funny. It just so happens that... it just so happens that...

And if they liked each other so much why didn't they just give each other their numbers the proper way? Don't get me wrong.. I'm not cynical and against all this fate/destiny stuff but nothing in this movie made sense to me. I kept watching it wishing it would end.

And of course it ended so predictably.

[–] miffedone 12 years ago

Sara didn't give Jonathon her phone number because she was already in a relationship. Oops, but then after FATE intervened by bringing them back together (forgotten package, forgotten scarf), she did, only to have FATE blow it out of her hand. She's a big believer in FATE, remember?

I'm not, I think it's a bunch of hooey, but I have known people who live by it ("It's just down the road from 'What's your sign?'"). So Sara was one of those, and it nagged at her even several years later - maybe especially because she was about to get married. (And if you don't think a guy can fall in love at first sight, you don't know guys ;)

Every day occurrence? Obviously not. Couldn't ever happen? Sure it could. Especially in Hollywood.

Miffed One

[–] stargazer1701-1 11 years ago

I don't think it was unbelievable or impossible. I think a romance like this could happen one in a ten million. My parents were soul mates.

Smoke me a kipper. I’ll be back for breakfast

[–] Tayte 11 years ago

I don't think the movie was intended to be realistic,

[–] ekwynn 12 years ago

This movie is entitled Serendipity, and so everything that ensues seems serendipitous. Which it is. In fact, I think they stretched the boundaries of the definition of a happy accident, serendipity, to the point of it's being ludicrous. And yet, I liked the movie anyway. We all must just hunger for romance even though we know that this stuff never happens. We WANT this stuff to happen, we tell ourselves it can happen, we want to live in a world where these things happen more often than we think they do. Mostly this is motivated by our own desire for whatever's missing in our lives, and movies give that to us. GO MOVIES!

[–] Zuider_Zee 10 years ago

Of course it was unrealistic but it was supposed to be that way.