| 91 |
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Serendipity has no business working, but it does. And by the way, Eugene Levy has no business almost stealing the show, but he does, too.
|
| 88 |
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
Serendipity returns us, if only for a couple of hours, to the Manhattan of our dreams.
|
| 80 |
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
Airy and enchanting, this romantic comedy works overtime to sprinkle moonlight and stardust over itself.
|
| 80 |
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Serendipity is "Sliding Doors" with no alternate versions; it's willed enchantment all the way.
|
| 80 |
Mr. Showbiz
Kevin Maynard
The casting is sublime.
|
| 75 |
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Serendipity's finale is a perfect crowd-pleaser, sweet and unlikely and over the top.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Bob Graham
Serendipity is a throwback to a more innocent era in American life, 25 days ago.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Honestly, it's still pretty hard to resist as a guilty pleasure: A fluffy date-night movie that wrung a tear or two from more than one hardened male critic's eyes, chick flick or no.
|
| 70 |
Newsweek
David Ansen
A fanciful, featherweight, mostly charming concoction predicated on the old romantic myth that there is one true soul mate out there for us all.
|
| 70 |
Film Threat
Michael Dequina
Serendipity leaves one with a pleasant feeling few films generate: that of wanting more.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
Ed Park
The most romantic New York movie since August's "Happy Accidents."
|
| 63 |
USA Today
Claudia Puig
If you can believe Serendipity's cockeyed conceit, you may find that discovering this escapist love story feels like a lucky accident.
|
| 63 |
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
The lightweight bauble is perfect entertainment for now.
|
| 63 |
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
There is a thrill in seeing them wooing and pursuing each other through the streets of New York, a city that here again, for a while, becomes a movie isle of joy.
|
| 60 |
Time
Richard Schickel
Your affection for Serendipity may depend on how fascinated you are by a movie that is apparently going after the all-time record for delayed consummation.
|
| 58 |
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Tasty, but, finally, a little unfulfilling.
|
| 50 |
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
It's kinda funny and pretty cute. Sometimes that's all it takes.
|
| 50 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Contrived and schematic, Peter Chelsom's film is a mechanical bird that never takes wing.
|
| 50 |
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
This exceedingly romantic comedy begins with flair but lapses into clichés long before the sentimental (and predictable) finale.
|
| 50 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
It all feels false and calculated, an overearnest attempt to find old-fashioned romantic innocence in the modern world by someone too jaded to believe.
|
| 50 |
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
The cinematic equivalent of a plate made of spun sugar.
|
| 50 |
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
I've never understood why filmmakers construct romances in which the leads hardly spend any time together.
|
| 50 |
New Times (L.A.)
Robert Wilonsky
Serendipity already feels archaic, like some dusty relic that's been unearthed from an antique store's attic and polished off for display.
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The pace is brisk and the details are carefully arranged, but there's no sparkle -- and what's a romance without that?
|
| 50 |
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Maybe the best way to see Serendipity is to take a cue from the characters and wait a few years.
|
| 50 |
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
A blithe and unapologetic fairy tale about affairs of the heart, it's a spun-sugar confection that's so light and airy it threatens to simply float away.
|
| 40 |
LA Weekly
Ernest Hardy
As Serendipity moves into the final stretch, Chelsom's direction becomes frenzied but still lethargic; he never breathes life into the film.
|
| 40 |
Chicago Reader
Lisa Alspector
Romantic comedy is set mainly in NYC, where the plight of its ambivalent lovers seems particularly trivial.
|
| 40 |
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Will serve as an excellent gauge of any viewer's tolerance level for schmaltzy contrivance and manipulation.
|
| 38 |
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
The plot risks bursting under the strain of its coincidences, as Sara and Jon fly to opposite coasts at the same time and engage in a series of Idiot Plot moves so extreme and wrongheaded that even other characters in the same scene should start shouting helpful suggestions.
|
| 30 |
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
The ultimate in deja viewing:an overfamiliar and exasperating game of cat-and-mousie.
|
| 20 |
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Insipid, by-the-numbers romance.
|
| 20 |
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Does romantic comedy have to come off as sugared stupidity? It does here.
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