Kate Beckinsale appearance of 2001 was in the romantic comedy "Serendipity" as the love interest of John Cusack. It was filmed directly after "Pearl Harbor" and Beckinsale found it "a real relief to return to something slightly more familiar." Turan praised the "appealing and believable" leads, adding that Beckinsale "reinforces the strong impression she made in "Cold Comfort Farm", "The Golden Bowl", and "The Last Days of Disco"" after "recovering nicely" from her appearance in the much-maligned "Pearl Harbor". Claudia Puig of "USA Today" felt that "Beckinsale's talents haven't been mined as effectively in any other film since "Cold Comfort Farm"." McCarthy
Kate Beckinsale of "The Hollywood Reporter" remarked, "There aren't great depths to the role, but Beckinsale excels with the long speeches and in defining her character as a very self-aware egoist." Also in the year, she starred in the horror film "The Disappointments Room", opposite Mel Raido, both playing a couple in a new house that contains a hidden room with a haunted past. The film was heavily panned by critics and flopped at the box office; it only made US$1.4 million in its opening weekend, and a total of US$2.4 million in North America. Christian Holub of "Entertainment Weekly" concluded that