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List Price: $29.95 | | Label: New Yorker Video
Salesrank: 27646
Released: April 23, 2002 |
| Our Price: $21.98 |
| Used Price: $7.80 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Audrey Tautou (star of Amélie) shimmers like a born movie star in Happenstance. A woman on the morning train tells Tautou that the full moon will lead her to her soulmate; from there, Happenstance follows a marvelous interlocking series of events, in which little things (like whether or not a young museum guard eats a piece of chocolate) affect bigger ones (like whether or not an adulterous husband will tell his wife the truth). The numerous characters intersect with each other's lives, creating a web of coincidences that finally catches Tautou like a hapless fly. This could have been cloying and forced, but the writing and directing are so deft and subtle that the coincidences of Happenstance feel natural and compelling. A sweet and hopeful movie, with excellent performance all around, but Tautou's wide-open eyes leap out of her every scene, hypnotic and charming. --Bret Fetzer
Happenstance Reviews:
The sinuous intersections of love! 
2008-04-21 - The opportunities, the proper choice and the effects of this last one, remove themselves in Paris any day. A dependent, born on March 11, 1977 reads her horoscope on the way of job that auguries her she will meet the love of her life (it's full moon night) but previously she will have to raffle some little and unpleasant obstacles, when twenty lives will cross trough unpredictably due this forecast.
Once more, the fertile creative imagination and the marvellous well written script allow us to be aware the mistakenly term "coincidence" is the final outcome of a set of apparently fortuitous events that work out unconnected into a major order.
Along the way, you we will witness about many common livings and feelings of our global world.
A true artistic celebration.
Box cover art 
2007-11-21 - Has anyone ever noticed that the box cover for Happenstance and Venus Beauty Institute are the exact same picture of Audrey Tautou?
"You Have A Friendly Face" ~ Stupid, Random And Ludicrous Acts That Upset The Order Of The World 
2007-09-18 - Note: French with English subtitles.
Synopsis: Andrey Tautou stars as [Irene] a pleasant young girl with a friendly face about to begin her first day at a new job. While riding the subway on her way to work a stranger asks for the date of her birth and reads her horoscope to her. According to the stars she will discover her soul mate before the day is over. However her true love can only be encountered after a series of bizarre and seemingly unconnected events must take place in order to allow their meeting to occur.
Critique: Released in '00 `Happenstance' is an enjoyable, though somewhat uneven film that explores the myriad of choices, and unplanned occurrences that can unknowingly alter our lives and destinies. The movie takes the audience on a sometimes whimsical, sometimes quirky journey through a day in the life of several individuals showing how the most simple of actions can create a myriad of repercussions in the lives of the characters of the film.
You will probably find watching this film a fairly pleasant way to while away an evening as you follow the string of "what if's" leading to an infinite number of possible conclusion. There are moments of greatness overflowing with profound and memorable conversation scattered throughout the film. There are also however some spotty moments here and there serving as nothing more than filler material pushing the storyline forward until the next great moment comes along. My favorite sequences in the film involve the appearance of an unnamed character referred to in the credits as "The Destiny Man" played by Gilbert Robin. When he's on screen the dialogue is fascinating but these moments are too short and not quite often enough.
My Rating: -2 ½ Stars-.
Happenstance 
2007-06-06 - Good, nice, okay - an enjoyable albeit rather mediocre film. Playing on the idea of "six degrees of separation" a sales clerk and a barrista fall in love.
My all-time favorite romantic comedy
2007-05-17 - Fun, fun, fun, 'til your Daddy takes the re-mote away.
It's clever, funny, *very* romantic (as only the French can be), and full of twists and turns. It's one of those movies that one thinks about and enjoys long after watching it.
I had to buy it so I could watch it over and over.
