Serendipity ★★½ 2001 (PG-13)

Ro mance finds Jonathan (Cusack) and Sara (Beckinsale) falling in love one cold New York winter's night but then they part com pany because Sara believes if it's meant to be, fate will bring them back together. Sara's a twinkling twit. Ten years later both are engaged, but Jon and Sara also become separately convinced that they are destined to be together—if they can find each other again. Lots of nearmisses and travel between New York and San Francisco until the inevitable happens. Swoony romanticism and more dippy than serendipitous but done in an expert manner. 87m/C VHS, DVD . US John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, Molly Shannon, John Corbett, Jeremy Piven, Bridget Moynahan, Eugene Levy; D: Peter Chelsom; W: Marc Klein; C: John de Borman; M: Alan Silvestri.

ser·en·dip·i·ty / ˌserənˈdipitē/ • n. the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way: a fortunate stroke of serendipity | a series of small serendipities. DERIVATIVES: ser·en·dip·i·tous / -ˈdipitəs/ adj.ser·en·dip·i·tous·ly adv.

serendipity the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. The word was coined (in 1754) by Horace Walpole, and was suggested by The Three Princes of Serendip, the title of a fairy tale in which the heroes ‘were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of’. (Serendip is a former name for Sri Lanka.)

serendipity faculty of making happy discoveries by accident. XVIII. Coined by Horace Walpole from the title of the fairy-tale ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’, the heroes of which were always making such discoveries; see -ITY.