Cheap Happenstance (DVD) (Faudel, Audrey Tautou) Price

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Customer Reviews of Happenstance

Enjoyable movie, but not great
First off, i have to put up my dukes to the dude who said this movie was like a funny, or "happy" Magnolia. I don't know how in the world you can make such an impression, this doesn't resemble Magnolia in any way except that unknown people are related in the end. Don't get the wrong impression folks. Anyways to get to the movie, it didn't live up to what i guess i was expecting. The movie sounds better than it is, but! but! it is still mildly enchanting, making you tilt your end in the end and go, "uh... interesting." It's by no means awful, meaning i'd watch it countless more times if the opportunities presented themselves, but it is neither a classic movie. The writing is amazing, but the way they sometimes act it across can be a little bit of a "let's go already". i'd still say see it, it's good, interesting destiny sort of interest.

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The Eye of the Beholder
Any movie that leaves me with a smile on my face from knowing I have just been had, marveling at the intricate way in which I have been had, and wanting to view the movie again to be had again -- immediately -- gets my "thumbs up" vote. <
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>"Happenstance" seems to be a movie arguing in favor of one theme or idea. But is it? Or, more precisely, is it saying that that one idea is always positive? <
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>On her morning subway commute to work, a girl (Audrey Tautou) encounters a survey-taking, horoscope-reading woman. The girl gets off the subway wondering about the horoscope that has just been read to her. And we wonder, too. As the movie continues, we see example after example of "coincidence" (or is it "synchronicity"?), examples that draw ever larger concentric circles, gathering larger numbers of people into a single, connected narrative. And yet, more than one story, one narrative, is involved, since each of the other people has his or her own life to be concerned with, as well. Nonetheless, they are all intertwined, and each by a different kind of "act": truly random acts (a muffin being tossed out of a car); a consciously-chosen "random" act (a shoe willfully tossed into the street); acts chosen by default (in "obedience" to self-defined "signs," such as the eating or non-eating of chocolate); and even animal actions (such as a pooping pigeon). <
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>By the end of the movie, we are led back to the same girl, whose circumstances by now have been considrably changed. How did we (and she) arrive at this point? We (and she) arrived by a series of seemingly unrelated acts. <
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>Watching this movie, I was reminded of the PBS series from several years ago, "Connections," which showed us how seemingly unrelated events "led to" other unintended, unanticipated consequences down the historical line: breeding larger horses for agriculture, for example, led to the use of those same larger horses for military purposes, which in turn led to . . . well, you get the idea. (Or was it the military use that came first, followed by the agricultural? I forget. It's hard to keep track. Life is that way; chicken-or-egg issues are everywhere.) <
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>The movie, wisely, portrays the up and the down side of this phenomenon. For example, a cafe clerk says he intentionally passes on "blessings in disguise" to others to widen his circle of karma. A man who hears this clerk's philosophy tries it out, creating, oddly enough, problems for another person. However, that other person then goes on to . . . . But why give everything away? <
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>All this unfolding litany of random but connected events is put before our eyes in gloriously filmed color, framing, and sets, with understated and effective acting, and clever and delightfully surprising plot twists. One might even say that this movie puts on our eyes a set of rose-colored glasses. But, as so many other movies remind us, we are all wearing glasses of one tint or another. Is rose any worse, say, than olive or charcoal or . . . pigeon poop? <
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>PS Viewing this movie along with "13 Conversations About the Same Thing," which is definitley less amusing, may be an interesting experience.

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Good movie
I rented this film as a project for my french class. I had perviously watched Amelie and chose this film based on my like of Audrey Tautou as an actress. I thought this movie was good. It dragged a little bit towards the middle/end, but when it was over and you could see how each situation and character effected the overall outcome, the ending is classic French!