Cast: Marisa Tomei, Vincent D'Onofrio, Nadia Dajani, Tovah Feldshuh, Holland Taylor, Richard Portnow, Sean Gullette, Cara Buono
Director: Brad Anderson
Producer: Susan A. Stover
Screenplay: Brad Anderson
Cinematography: Terry Stacey
Music: Evan Lurie
U.S. Distributor: IFC
Take your pick: Happy Accidents can be seen as either a romantic comedy or a science fiction effort. The film, from writer/director Brad Anderson (Next Stop, Wonderland), stars Marisa Tomei as Ruby, a woman who has a history of dating men with problems. Her latest beau, Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio), is no exception, but he takes the cake: he's a time traveler (or at least claims to be one) from the year 2470. According to him, he has tripped back 470 years through the corridors of the fourth dimension after becoming infatuated with a photograph of Ruby he saw while in the future (sort of the ultimate blind date). As one might expect, their relationship has its ups and downs (chief of which is that Ruby thinks he's a nutcase, even though she's hopelessly in love with him).
Happy Accidents is about as unconventional a romantic comedy as you're likely to find - the only problem is that the lackluster science fiction elements keep getting in the way. Tomei, who has recently been thriving in supporting roles and non-mainstream motion pictures, is wonderfully natural and luminous, and D'Onofrio is typically solid, although there isn't much heat or chemistry between them. Unfortunately, Happy Accidents' approach to time travel paradoxes isn't especially compelling or interesting, and has a been-there, done-that feel. We have seen this stuff before, in "The Twilight Zone", "Doctor Who" (from which a key technobabble term is borrowed), and "Star Trek" ("The City on the Edge of Forever"), to name a few.
The ending is also a cheat (a fact that Anderson has admitted under intense questioning), causing the movie to conclude in a distinctly unsatisfactory manner (at least for those who care about their science fiction). Happy Accidents is best viewed as an offbeat romantic comedy. From that perspective, it's fresh and unusual. Anyone who calls this "innovative", however, has a serious science fiction underexposure quotient.
© 2001 James Berardinelli