Happenstance

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Film: B-

 

 

Trying to juggle multiple storylines is not easy.  When Cameron Crowe did Singles (1992), he wondered why it did not click, until he saw Paul Thomas Anderson films like Bogie Nights (1997) and saw the light.  Of course, Anderson’s films would not have been possible without Robert Altman or Alain Resnais, but point taken.  Writer/ Director Laurent Firode tries something in between the two extremes with Happenstance (2000), and the result is just as in between.

 

Audrey Tautou of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie and Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things is Irene, a department store worker who gets approached on the subway with personal questions from a woman who reveals she is doing a survey, then starts telling her about her Horoscope.  Odder still, the guy diagonally from her and next to Miss Questionnaire has the same birthday.  However, the film’s just getting started, running the risk of destroying its credibility.

 

What does work are the characters, played by actors who make you want to keep watching.  Other intertwining story lines offer shoplifting, employment troubles, infidelity, personal grief bubbling to the surface slowly, physical injuries, physical and verbal altercations, the weather, the skies at night, and tarot cards.  The film wants the audience to believe in some sort of possible magic in life, but its frankness about human character shows it did not need this put-on, even when it is meant to be funny.  That kills me, because there is something more bubbling under the screenplay that does not happen.

 

The film that it kept reminding me of was Paul Thomas Anderson’s grossly underrated Magnolia (1999), which was even more ambitious and complex.  That film both topped Boogie Nights and finishes what Happenstance starts.  This is not to take away from what Happenstance accomplishes, but it would also be fair to say it is part of a cycle of such multi-narratives-in-one films.

 

The 1.85 X 1 image is anamorphically enhanced, but has some trouble going from the European PAL format to this U.S. NTSC DVD.  However, this is a nicely shot film, without many camera tricks that would have otherwise shifted it into another direction.  The city scenery of France is not romantic, though the film sometimes is.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is in Pro Logic surround and originates form the analog Dolby SR theatrical sound that is not bad here.  The extras are only a couple of trailers for New Yorker DVDs, including this one.

 

All in all, this was a better film than expected, and Firode has some talent, making me want to see more.  Tautou is becoming a bigger and bigger star as you read this, so that should be reason alone enough to check out Happenstance.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo