Last night I watched Serendipity, a film about fate, destiny, and soulmates. I overall enjoyed the film, but somehow I walked away with more questions than answers. I am a realist, possibly a pessimist, who looks at life from the perspective of practicality. I am hyper focused about making my days productive and I look at my future and plan the most efficient way to get there. I would never say I would “follow my heart” in a decision over love and practicality, but the sentiment of it is nice.
I have a friend who loves romantic movies; she has probably seen every single one on Netflix, and her “hopeless romantic” attitude inspires me. How can you look at every single pair of people and think they are meant to be together? Multiple times this semester, she has supported relationships that I have had my doubts about. It’s such a lovely idea that every relationship will work out, but especially at the beginning stages, I tend to think about the negative possible endings. I think that there are two options in a relationship: you either get married or you break up, and obviously it is easier to prepare for the latter and let it be a happy surprise if it does work out. This is where my apprehension towards rom-coms comes in.
I understand that there is some sort of joy that appears after watching a movie where everything works out and everyone ends up happy but, what false sense of reality is it giving? Serendipity was a film about these two people who met one night, by “fate”, and then instead of exchanging numbers, they left the rest up to destiny. They end up living their separate lives but somehow in the back of their minds, they always considered that their soulmate was the person they met that one night. They search for signs in everything and years later, they somehow find each other again. It was for sure a cute film, but like we all knew what was gonna happen, and there was absolutely no sense of anything realistic in the film. How could you assume this one individual you met this one night was your soulmate? If I lived my life like this, I would be soulmates with every boy I have ever talked to on Wheeler 4. Also, they literally do not know each other at all; what if they have different political beliefs, or their living habits are quite opposites? Neither of these potential deal-breakers are even covered. They put all of their eggs in this random basket. My other friend noted, “What if they are cousins?” like I know that is a funny thought, but for real it’s a possibility.
This film gives the viewers a sense of hope. The idea that life has this funny way of working out, or that there is this one person in the world meant to be your soulmate. It’s a beautiful sentiment really, but I think it will only set those who take up this philosophy on life for failure. I do not think anyone takes this film literally, but I think people may walk away thinking that life will work everything out for them, which will lead to a brutal wake up call. I think that life is really what you make of it, therefore when you work hard and are realistic about everything, your life will be content. I think the sense of hope this movie provides is beautiful, but I do not think that it is a realistic way of life.