Fate. Despite the primary philosophy of the movie, it seems to be entirely nearly missed. As if to highlight that fate is more about the near encounters than the actual experiences, it was only truly evident in the beginning and end of the movie that our two protagonists were meant to be.
The movie begins with Jon and Sara fighting over a pair of gloves in the department store to buy as a gift for their significant others. Despite their respective unfortunate unavailability, there was an apparent excellent chemistry between the two. They would get dinner, skate, and ponder over the significance of their chance meeting.
It was here that fate was first mentioned. Is it fate that they met that night? Followed by the most incongruous attempt to test fate: place their contact numbers on a five-dollar bill and on a used copy of Love in the Time of Cholera, and hope that it reaches them again.
And just in case they were meant to meet and be together from that night on, they test fate again: get on different elevators and hope the other presses the same floor. Of course, that just shows they have the same mindset more than fate, but let’s let that be. This also implies that no one else will use those same elevators, which as I watched the scene, was exactly what followed. However weird it may be that despite both elevators going up at the same time only one of them was stopped by the elevator system to pick up other guests on the upper floors. Perhaps that’s just fate.
Fast forward seven years, they’re both expecting to be married yet the idea of their fated meeting still lingers in their minds. They would still look for the book and for the bill. They’d interpret the slightest reference to the night they met as if a sign that fate has delivered them. Or, a more likely reason, that they don’t think they’re with the right person and are both desperately looking for a reason to not push through.
Jonathan would track her down using a receipt from seven years ago. He would spend $800 to bribe the sales representative to let him track a person totally ignoring what laws that would be breaking. They would look at credit card applications, track down her previous address, and fail at finding the roommate finder service she previously used. Sara would fly to New York, spend an entire day going wherever she feels fate is taking her, and give up after no clues are found. It was only after their goose chase that they realised how much they don’t want to marry another. And as their then-relationships break, they find each other serendipitously after losing all hope.
And all that effort, only to be in the same place at the same time but looking in the wrong direction. They were successful in their attempt to thwart fate, only that what fate they thwarted may be the same fate that could have led them sooner to each other. Or maybe fate meant trusting in the process even if that includes doubting it first. The very concept of fate is vague and unreliable.
Or maybe fate is more of what we make life to be instead of what we are made to experience.
Flipped Serendipity 