Happy Accidents

Written and directed by Brad Anderson
Current theatrical release

Chris Dahlen

So I dig romantic comedies. So what. I love it when the cute hero and heroine get stuck in a hotel room in a snowstorm with only one bed. I bite my nails waiting to see if they get together, even though (usually) they do and everything turns out great. These are not complicated films. All it takes is a catchy premise and great chemistry between great leads.

Seems simple, yet recent romantic comedies have been awful. The casting is dull: I don't care anymore if Tom Hanks adores the tweaky upturn of Meg Ryan's shnozz, or if Ben Affleck sleeps with anyone again ever. I don't even want to see big celebrities in these films anymore.

The scenarios are also becoming conventional and unchallenging. We take for granted the obstacles thrown up in front of the characters. It's no longer convincing for the man to have to decide between leaving for a job in Argentina or staying in New York to be with the woman he adores but barely knows. Today they could fly out on the weekends. If the female lead finds out that her true love didn't really sleep with his ex-girlfriend, instead of racing to catch him and win him back at the airport, she can call his cell. Anyway, what happened to the movies about people who run big corporations and jet around the world?

If big Hollywood romances are too contrived and charmless, there's room for a smaller and more honest film to surprise us. This is why watching Happy Accidents in a half-empty art theater was the best moviegoing experience I've had all year.

The second and more successful romantic comedy from writer/director Brad Anderson, Happy Accidents features Vincent D'Onofrio and Marisa Tomei acting their hearts out as a couple that's deeply in love and seemingly doomed to fail. It's better not to know the story going in, but here's what you learn in the first fifteen minutes: Tomei is a single Manhattanite who has had a series of codependent relationships with oddballs and losers. One afternoon she meets D'Onofrio in Central Park and is immediately charmed. D'Onofrio's a little unusual - he mixes up words and gets scared by small dogs - but he's a genuine and nice guy who's charmingly infatuated with her. They become involved, and only then does she find out why he's strange: he claims to be a "back traveller" from the year 2470. Is he insane? And if he's telling the truth, what's the real story - what is he doing here?

Many critics were thrown off by the science fiction angle of the film. Yet romantic comedies are usually implausible, and maybe the sci-fi/fantasy angle is the best way to bring challenge and suspense back to the genre. Some of the best romance on television today has been on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the show uses silly stuff about demons and prophecies to tell stories about love and sacrifice that say more than any Nora Ephron film.

Anderson skillfully rolls out the story without miring us in details, and throws in gags without stalling the narrative. D'Onofrio's eccentricities and Tomei's neuroses are believable rather than irritating. Tomei vascillates between trusting D'Onofrio and feeling baffled by his impossible story and his bizarre descriptions of life in the future; we watch them fight and then we watch them dance around without a care in the world. As the story becomes complicated the tension builds well, and always with comic relief - for example, Anthony Michael Hall makes a cameo in the middle of the biggest fight. You could probably find some holes in the elaborate plot but you can't argue with the story arc: I've never seen a romantic comedy where I felt that more was at stake or where a happy ending was more unlikely.

Romantic comedies aren't meant to be normal. The couple can't just be cute, they have to be special - a feature-length version of the few moments of your life where you fall in love and are terrified to see what'll happen. Why can't Tomei, who has had so many crap relationships in the past, get over D'Onofrio's oddball claims and accept him as a great guy? All of us can go out and meet people in bars, but to have someone from the future romance you - that's really special.

Related resources

Even a small independent film can get a great Flash-heavy web site, and Happy Accidents is no exception.