Happy Accidents (2000)

Brief: Ruby (Marisa Tomei) falls hard for Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio) but becomes suspicious when he claims that he's a "back traveler" from the year 2470.

Oh, late night IFC. Late night IFC, for me anyway, means one of two things: a really, really horrifying movie or a really, really, good movie. Care to fathom a guess as to which it was?

It was really, really good!

Now, the description on the guide listed it as a "romantic comedy", which I don't really think it was. It wasn't so much on the funny side, unless you count Nadia Dajani (Gretchen), who I feel is terribly underrated and should be in more films. Tomei is amazing, passionate, and pure. D'Onofrio has come a long was since the first thing I remember seeing him in: as the Edgar suit in Men in Black. Sure, I've seen him in a lot of other things that came before and since, but that's how I was first introduced to him. And I like him. D'Onofrio maintains a child like innocence about him as Sam, which translates like poetry upon the screen.

I also like Brad Anderson, the writer and director. I've never seen anything else he's done, and I am willing to discover more.

What happened to me during the movie is that I stopped caring whether or not what Sam claimed was true. The whole plot was wrapped up in this question, and I very much felt like I was just along for the ride. I guess at that point it didn't make any difference to me because I was enjoying it so much.