Happy Accidents

Marisa Tomei, Vincent D’Onofrio

“The future just isn’t what it used to be”




A few years ago we paid a visit to our local video store, long before Dorian worked in the current one, and we rented this delightful little gem of an indy film because it looked like it might have some potential. It turned out to have so much potential that we ended up buying a copy, which I pulled out last night and blew the dust off of for my second viewing. I’d forgotten how thoroughly entertaining it is.

It’s definitely a romantic comedy, with more emphasis on the romance than the comedy, along with plenty of drama, mystery and science fiction woven throughout a story that kept me mesmerized the first time I saw it and then again last night. Vincent D’Onofrio is at his quirkiest best as a dorky misfit named Sam who claims to be a time traveler who's come almost 500 years into the past, all for the love of a beautiful woman named Ruby, who is beautifully played by Marisa Tomei. How's THAT for romance, ladies?

I’ve had a celluloid crush on Marisa since that silly heart movie with Christian Slater, and Vincent always makes me grin, with all of his ticks and gestures that seem to be present in every character he plays, but never so appropriately as here. Sam is a geeky nervous wreck, and if he’s to be believed about traveling so far back into time, well then OF COURSE he doesn’t fit in- would YOU fit in if you ended up back in 1600? I’d personally have a hard time of it. But there’s always the possibility that he doesn’t fit in simply because.. well.. he just doesn’t fit in, so he makes up an incredible story to bring his life from the edge of tedium into the realm of the fantastic, therefore causing the vivacious Ruby to fall in love with him while she stands in awe of his mystical presence..

..or maybe he’s just a raving lunatic.

Happy Accidents was released in 2000, and the following year a similar film with a larger budget and some bigger stars hit the video shelves- K-PAX with Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. Ironically, Kevin’s character claims to be an alien in that film (as in from another planet, not another country) and the fun in it is trying to figure out if he’s telling the truth, or if he’s a tad bonkers. K-PAX is entertaining, but I personally like this movie better. It’s very nicely written and directed by Brad Anderson, and the sparkling dialogue helps the acting from the two leads remain top notch, such as in the scene where Sam is finally forced to tell Ruby who he really is..

SAM- “Okay, okay- I’ll tell you, alright?” (pause) “I’m not from Dubuque”

RUBY- (tearfully, as she fears her new boyfriend is about to tell her something she doesn’t want to hear) “Okay, you’re not from Dubuque- where are you from then?”

SAM- (pause) “Dubuque”

(RUBY SCREAMS)

SAM- “I’m not from Dubuque in the way that you THINK I’m from Dubuque..”

RUBY- “Well HOW many ways can you be from Dubuque?”

SAM- “I’m not from YOUR Dubuque”

RUBY- “My Dubuque? Since when is Dubuque mine? I’ve never even BEEN to Ohio”

SAM- “Iowa..”

RUBY- “WHATEVER!”

SAM- “Look, I’m just saying that- my Dubuque is different from your Dubuque”

RUBY- “How?”

SAM- “It doesn’t exist”

RUBY- “You just SAID it’s in IDAHO!”

SAM- “IOWA!”

RUBY- “So your Dubuque doesn’t exist..”

SAM- “Yet”

RUBY- “Yet”

SAM- “YET!”

RUBY- “YET?”

SAM- “YET!”

RUBY- “And when WILL your Dubuque exist?”

SAM- (long pause) “ Two thousand four hundred and seventy- A.D. Uh, that’s in- four hundred and seventy one years- from now”

RUBY- (pause) “what?”



Unfortunately this movie eventually ends, but at least it’s an ending that leaves you with some closure, and a bit of wonderment.

Happy Accidents is a great date movie. It’s funny, smart, charming, clever, romantic and a bit silly, but not very. And I just remembered another reason why I love Marisa- the girl can cry so well on screen, she breaks my heart with every tear.


5 relative quantum spacetime continuum fissures (based on the Euclidean space perception and Cheeseman's theory) out of 5