"Chances Are," Some Laughs & Some Good Music

This is a fantasy comedy film from the late 1980s. I became interested when one of its songs, "After All," performed by Cher and Peter Cetera, became very popular on the radio and in bars; ah... at least someone told me it was popular in bars. The song led me to the movie, and I enjoyed it. The title song, performed by Johnny Mathis, was already well known to many people, including to me, from many years before, and there is also another Johnny Mathis song, "Wonderful, Wonderful," as well as Rod Stewart's  "Forever Young," and The Gregg Allman Band's "Can't Get Over You," Ruben Blades' "Nuestro Adios," Jimmy Soul's catchy "If You Wanna Be Happy," and some other songs.

The story centers around the 1960's love between a recently married couple, Louie and Corinne Jeffries, played by Christopher McDonald and Cybill Shepherd. Louie's best friend, Phillip, played by Ryan O'Neal, is in love with Corinne too, a fact Louie already knows, but is untroubled by. With Corinne pregnant with their first child, Louie, a district attorney, is hit and killed by a car, but once "upstairs," he insists on being sent right back to Earth, which is granted, and he has to be reborn to another family, but the attending angel forgets to give him a special inoculation to make him forget, so Louie's memory of his previous life will remain. Corinne gives birth to a daughter, Miranda, played by Mary Stuart Masterson, and Corinne also maintains her friendship with Phillip, who still loves her, but who remains a bachelor. Corinne never remarries, as she misses Louie even as the years pass and Miranda grows up and goes off to school in the mid to late 1980s. The reborn Louie, now named Alex, is born into another family about the same time as Miranda is born. Alex is ably played by Robert Downey, Jr. Alex, who wants to become a reporter, is also off at school and he meets Miranda. He later also meets Phillip, who invites him to dinner, where he will meet the Jeffries, Louie's widow and daughter. Once there, Alex again sees Miranda, and the two like one another, but slowly Alex begins to remember things from the past, although at first he's confused as to why. Corinne notices some of Alex's little habits are the same as Louie's were. Alex's memory continues to delve into the past and he finally realizes that he is really the late Louie Jeffries ... well, the new Louie Jeffries ... well the old Louie Jeffries now named Alex ... however the hell you say it!

With his new realization, Alex has to distance himself from Miranda's affection, since she's his daughter, but at the same time, he wants to reignite the affections of Corinne, his lonely and faithful wife. It all gets pretty hilarious, because Phillip still wants Corinne too, but once Alex convinces her that he's really Louie, she's happy as hell. Then Phillip catches Alex and Corinne half undressed, and he and Alex fight. Alex says, "I'm Louie," which leads Phillip to say, "Yeah right, and I'm Cleopatra," and Alex says, as they roll around on the floor, "You are not... you fight like her though." Meanwhile, Miranda is confused by Alex's changed behavior toward her, going from treating her like she's his girlfriend to treating her like he's her father, ah... which he is... well, anyway.

Events show Corinne how her unceasing love for Louie has made her oblivious to Phillip's love for her, but initially she is torn between the two. Likewise, Alex sees how Phillip has cared for his widow over the years, but how he always remained the gentleman. Through a mix up, Corinne and Phillip "get together," and the "Louie spell" over Corinne is broken, just as Phillip holding in his feelings is now over too.

Alex goes to see Miranda at the courthouse where she works, but now his memory is stoked once more, as the presiding judge is the same judge who took a payoff to throw out evidence against a mobster in a 1960's case, when Alex was Louie, a D.A. Prior to his death he got a picture of the judge accepting an envelop in a park late at night; a picture still in his camera. Alex confronts the crooked judge, who summons the guards, and they chase Alex, but he falls down the steps. The scene shifts to the hospital, where Corinne sits at Alex's bedside while he is unconscious. She speaks to him, as if he were awake, telling him they don't belong together anymore, because people change. An attendant comes in to administer an injection to Alex, but it's really the angel with the memory inoculation, and now all will be well. The story ends at the outdoor marriage of Corinne and Phillip, as "After All" is sung by Cher and Peter Cetera over the ceremony and the credits. It doesn't get much better than that. This is really a nice movie and one you should see, if you haven't done so.

 WORD HISTORY:
Chance-This word is related to "case" (the noun form meaning, "the state or condition of something, something that happens;" as in, "in this case," "a court case," also the grammatical sense, "nominative case, accusative case, etc"), a word of Latin origin borrowed by English from Latin-based French, and it is related to "cadaver," a word borrowed by English from Latin. "Chance" goes back to Indo European "khad/kad," which had the meaning, "to fall." This gave Latin "cadere," which meant, "to fall." This produced Latin "cadentia," meaning, "something that falls out, the falling out of dice." This gave Old French, a Latin-based language, "cheance," with the same meanings, but also the further development from the idea of "falling dice," gave the broader meaning of, "accident, random happening," which continued when the word was borrowed into English in the late 1100s/early 1200s.