Grace Rushes In

A review of the movie Fools Rush In (Columbia Pictures, 1997, PG-13)

Pregnancy from a one night stand is one of the top heartbreaks that can happen in the life of a woman. That’s exactly the premise of Fools Rush In, starring Matthew Perry  who plays Alex Whitman, a young businessman on the fast track, and Salma Hayek who plays Isabel Fuentes, a young Mexican woman living in Las Vegas where Alex is temporarily executing a business expansion. After meeting in a line for a co-ed bathroom (which serves as an apt metaphor), Isabel spends one night with Alex, and leaves early in the morning, giving him no way to contact her. Three months later she returns letting him know she’s pregnant and the baby is his.

Time for the DNA test, right? Wrong. Isabel is a unique woman because she’s not back to demand anything from Alex. This is the first sign of grace—you know, the kind of favor that is undeserved. She explains that she wants to do the honorable thing and inform him about the baby, and that there is now only one thing to do. In a moment of well-acted emotion by Perry, Whitman’s obvious relief at the thought of an abortion is reversed when she declares she will keep the baby.

Besides being Mexican, Isabel is Catholic and has a strong sense of the sanctity of life. In their first meeting she had already declared her philosophy of life that Destiny decides people’s fate, and that they only have to look for signs. Alex insightfully asked for clarification, “Is that a religious thing or a cultural thing?” Good question. Yet, Isabel has faith and the object of that faith is the God depicted on the crucifix.

Alex, swept away by the grace extended to him, asks what he can do to help and she tells him the one thing he can do is go with her to her family get-together so the family can put a face to the father of the baby. At the family gathering, they begin to fall in love, and since baby is already on the way, it’s their “destiny” to get married immediately in Vegas. Alex tells her, “You are everything I never knew I always wanted.”

With marriage comes reality along with Isabel’s discovery that Alex is only on a temporary assignment in Vegas. His job-driven upcoming move back to Manhattan threatens to tear the couple apart. They split up because, as Isabel states, “Love is a gift, Alex, not an obligation.” Formerly cynical of her beliefs, suddenly Alex is seeing signs that their destiny is together, while she has lost faith in their relationship.

The success of their reunion is so incredibly against the odds that Hollywood provides for us a picture of amazing grace. It’s just a make believe story for profit, right? We are such saps for grace, we believe it only when we suspend critical thinking, as we often agree to do for a movie. We are hard pressed to find examples of grace in real life.

I recall a friend telling me about her son and his family. It seems he got his girlfriend pregnant in high school. It looked like it ruined his plans for college as he decided to get a job and marry her. But wait. His father extends grace, and they find a way together to get him through college so he can better support his already growing family. This situation turns out so well that three children later the young couple is still in love and flourishing. Church members and relatives actually complain that they can’t use them as an example for their teenagers of consequences after bad behavior. Why is it when it turns out well, it makes us both happy and mad?

Grace is like that. It sounds weak and sentimental, but it’s not easy-going. It shocks, it angers, it brings relief and it gets the job done. When we’ve messed up, made poor choices and consequences seem to overwhelm us, grace rescues. Yes, it’s true that a one night stand is a horribly dangerous way to start a family. But grace is bigger than our sins and our mistakes. Watch for the signs.

by Rachel Ramer