Chances Are (The Movie Review)

http://movie-posters.lucywho.com/chances-are-movie-posters-t619014.html

I. Summary

1. Title: Chances Are
2. Writer: Perry & Randy Howze

Author: Emile Ardolino

3. Setting: Many scenes were filmed in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
4. Characters:

·        Louie Jeffries – the man/husband who got reincarnated

·        Corinne Jeffries – the wife of Louie

·        Miranda Jeffries – the daughter of Louie and Corinne

·        Philipp Train – the best friend of Louie and secret admirer of Corinne

·        Alex Finch – the reincarnation of Louie

5. Plot:

 The story began with Louie and Corinne’s wedding day. One year after the wedding, Louie was killed in a car crash in 1964 but manages to slip by the pearly gates, or heaven, and is instantly reborn. 23 years later, his widow Corinne still misses him, and ignores the frustrated devotion of his best friend Phillip Train. When Phillip, now Corinne's beau, brings home the college graduate Alex Finch, Alex suddenly realizes he is in fact Corinne's dead husband reborn. His memories of his life as Louie return after he becomes romantically involved with Louie's (his) daughter Miranda. Soon, Louie starts romancing his widow, spurning his daughter's advances, and frustrating Phillip's attempts to court Corrine. At the mid part of the film, Alex Finch, who had the memory of Louie, tried to reveal the anomaly of a judge and upon his pursuit to seek for justice and put the judge behind bars, Alex got into an accident, of which he fell off from the stairs. Upon his hospitalization, an “angel” secretly injected Alex an anecdote that would erase all his memory of his past life as Louie. The story ended with the marriage of Corinne and Philipp Train and so as of the blossoming of the love between Alex and Miranda.

II. What part of the film struck you most?

            I was greatly moved of the scene in the movie when Alex played the song “After All” on the piano, from which by then Corinne finally realized that Alex Finch was indeed the reincarnation of her husband, Louie. With that very moment, I felt how deep and eternal Louie and Corinne’s love for each other is. It made me realize that true love does not have a happy ending, but rather true love does not have an ending.

III. If given a chance, which role in the film would you like to portray?

            If given a chance to be part of the movie, I would gladly take the role of Alex Finch. The reason is that I find a great deal of challenge to play as Alex, and I am fond of challenges. The character doesn’t only require so much acting skills, script memorization, but so as an intensive characterization. I would like also to put myself in a situation wherein one day I would wake up and realize that I am a reincarnation of whosoever. I would like to take the chance to be 2 persons at the same time and be able to innovate clever ways to prove to others that I am indeed the reincarnation of the specific person, whoever he or she maybe.

IV. What philosophies are portrayed in the film? Cite the scenes.

• Spiritualism – is the philosophy that believes that spirits or souls can survive bodily death.

This philosophy was very much evident in the film especially after the death of Louie Jeffries caused by the freak car accident. Louie’s soul was then brought to heaven after his death and was then assigned to be reborn.

• Determinism – is the philosophy that states that every event has a cause.

This philosophy was depicted in the film by the series of events that showed that all the consequences, obstacles and conflicts encountered by the main characters of the story had prevalent causes, and the problems were just mere outcome of certain actions or events. One instance is the death of Louie, which was caused by the car accident. Another is when Alex remembered about his past life as Louie, which was actually caused by the “angel” who forgot to inject Louie with the anecdote that make him forget of his past life before he gets to be reborn.

• Existentialism – this philosophy emphasizes the freedom of human beings to make choices in a world where there are no absolute values outside man himself.

This philosophy was prevalent in the film, which showed that all the main characters are free to make their own choices. This can be proven in the character of Alex, when he decided to just let Philipp, his best friend, to pursue his affair with Corinne, his past life wife. Another proof is found in the character of Corinne wherein she has to make a choice either to live in the past with Louie in the body of Alex or choose the present with Philipp.

V. Explain the title of the film.

            Chances Are… Chances are always part of man’s life. Either we do all we can to grab that chance or just simply let that chance slipped away. Life is all but chances. We will never know what might get into our way or know when our time on earth is up not until it’s over. So all we need to do is to live life to the fullest, to laugh as much as we can, to take our time to look up at the sunrise or sunset or stars at night, to sing as loud as we can, and to love like we have never been hurt. This is because every 60 seconds we spend is a minute and a chance of happiness we may never get back.