Serendipity



Serendipity is a 2001 film starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale as Jonathan Trager and Sara Thomas, who meet in Bloomingdale's after grabbing the same pair of gloves as a Christmas gift for their respective partners. Jonathan is attracted to Sara and asks her to give him her number, but when he loses it, Sara believes that they should let destiny determine whether or not they should be together. They are separated, left with nothing but one glove each from the same black pair they had seen in Bloomingdale's, and with no clues to finding each other but a five-dollar bill (on which Jonathan had written his name and number) and a copy of Love In The Time Of Cholera (in which Sara did the same) that they send out to the world for them to find. And no, they don't even know each other's full names when they get separated.

Six years later, Jonathan is engaged to Halley Buchanan and would be getting married in a few days, while Sara's boyfriend Lars Hammond proposes to her. Despite this, both of them continue trying to find the dollar bill and the book (although Sara's belief in supernatural phenomena has greatly decreased) and find themselves in a race against time and destiny in an attempt to meet again. Hilarity Ensues.

The following tropes are found in this film:

 * Because Destiny Says So: The entire premise of the film
 * Beta Couple: Dean and Courtney, according to Jonathan, though they eventually split up. Dean tries to fix things up, though.
 * Boy Meets Girl: It's John Cusack, what do you expect?
 * Chekhov's Gun: The gloves do more than just bring them together; Jonathan's glove helps him in his search for Sara.
 * Contrived Coincidence: All the events that prevent Jonathan from finding with Sarah in NYC (and vice-versa), with some of them being far more believable than others
 * Double Meaning Title: "Serendipity" is both a restaurant that is the site of Jonathan and Sarah's first date and the premise of the film (luck; good fortune; fate.)
 * I Will Find You
 * It's a Small World After All: Sara's best friend Eve knew Jonathan's fiancee Halley in college. In fact, Sara and Jonathan would have met about half an hour earlier if Sara had just gone with Eve to watch the wedding rehearsal!
 * Meet Cute: The main characters do this, then spend the rest of the movie just barely avoiding doing so again.
 * Missed Him By That Much: Also the entire premise of the film
 * Mistaken Identity: I guess that golfer did kind of look like Jonathan from behind...
 * No Name Given: Almost, anyway.
 * Orbital Kiss: At the very end, in an empty skating rink, with softly falling snow all around them. Absolutely beautiful.
 * Plot Coupon: The book and the dollar bill.
 * Romantic Runner Up: Lars and Halley.
 * Runaway Fiance: Jonathan seems to be fairly uninterested in his own wedding, enough so to be running after some other woman in the crucial days before.
 * Screw Destiny: Jonathan really, really hates that it separated him from Sara
 * Shoddy Knockoff Product: We see "Prado" purses offered by street vendors.
 * Shout Out: We see an ad for Six Degrees of Separation, a play based on an eponymous concept, which is related to Missed Him By That Much
 * Snow Means Love: Jonathan and Sara meet five days before Christmas. It's winter again when they find each other at the end.
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: Well, destiny said so after all...
 * There Are No Coincidences: According to Sara...
 * Too Soon: The movie was filmed before 9/11, but released afterwards. The twin towers were digitally erased from the New York skyline.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Says Sara.