Happenstance

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Stars Audrey Tautou, gaminelike, waiflike, vivid and completely adorable.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Utterly delightful fable of romantic destiny.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

It brims with the charm, wisdom and light touch that have endeared French films to international audiences for more than a century. It doesn't hurt that its star is "Amelie's" Audrey Tautou.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Perhaps it's all a bit too much, and perhaps it doesn't add up, but the loose ends give the picture a jaunty, improvised feeling that, while it leads to some confusion, is ultimately part of its whimsical charm.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The movie is funny, but it's also touching and poetic -- and Bertin's scenes are devastating.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

In Happenstance, fortune doesn't just smile -- it schemes and tricks and zigzags, forming an urban road map of fate's detours.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Happenstance represents an intriguing meditation on the unseen forces that no one can escape.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Mild but engaging romance.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

There's no doubt that sheer mechanism propels Happenstance, but the numerous characters and storylines flow and converge in a gracefully unpredictable and witty manner.

Boston Globe Leighton Klein

It has every mark of inspiration by imitation.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

That is not an original idea, for sure. But the ensemble cast -- especially Tatou as a 24-year-old store clerk named Irene -- is personable and the Parisian ambiance is catching.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Being French, the film at least has indelible details -- something a Hollywood remake would fix but good.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

Fate plays both prankster and deliverer in Firode's never-too-clever scheme, buoyed, like his often-winsome images, by romantic fancy.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

As slight as it is sweet.

Chicago Reader Hank Sartin

Like several recent films, Happenstance draws on chaos theory as an inspiration, musing on the slim difference between random chance and fate and trotting out the old chestnut about the flapping of butterfly wings causing a tsunami.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

Ultimately feels like tiny films glued together by events that often test plausibility. The idea wears thin soon, and some of the characters and their tales get lost in the unstoppable domino chain.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The movie has magical moments, but it's too contrived to gather much comic or dramatic power.

New Times (L.A.) Jean Oppenheimer

Viewers expecting another enchanting, whimsical tale of high energy and mischievous spirits will be sorely disappointed.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

A clever idea that never stretches beyond just that -- a caterpillar that never blooms into a butterfly.

TV Guide Steve Simels

Episodic, pretentious, and more than a little silly.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Tautou seems tired, mean-spirited and utterly devoid of that Audrey Hepburn-like charm that made her the international movie find of 2001.