AML Movie Review: “Definitely, Maybe” (2008)

Being that the last few movies I’d seen were No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood and Jumper, it was actually refreshing to get out and watch Definitely, Maybe. I make no apologies for enjoying some of the better chick-flicks out there, because everyone needs a feel-good movie now and then.

Definitely, Maybe comes from the same group that brought us Love Actually and Notting Hill, so I had high hopes for this romantic comedy starring Ryan Reynolds, one of the funnier actors out there.

Granted, it didn’t have Hugh Grant in it, but we’ll let that slide. *grin*

The thing about romantic comedies is that you can usually predict what happens: A girl finds a guy, they fall in love, you wait for one of them to screw up, so they break up and it’s just a matter of time before the other apologizes in some amazing way that makes the other melt like butter.

I find the secret in a good chick-flick is to come up with some original way to tell the story. And this one pulled it off.

Ryan Reynolds stars as Will Hayes, a man going through a divorce with an unknown woman with whom he’s fathered a daughter played by Abigail Breslin. Early in the film, Will gets divorce papers delivered to him at this advertising company where he has a corner office.

He’s obviously an unhappy guy. His little girl Maya can see this and asks him why he and mom are splitting up. Will replies with the same response all adults come up with in movies: “It’s complicated.”

(There are phrases in film and television which sometimes just bug me and “it’s complicated” has quickly risen to the top. I know there may not be better ways to say that, but it’s just used to much that you get tired of hearing it.)

Maya is in no way satisfied with that answer, so she begs her father to tell her the story of he and his mother. Why aren’t they happy anymore? Why is the whole thing so difficult to explain?

He gives in to her one night before bedtime and delves into the story of graduating from college and moving to New York to work in Bill Clinton’s campaign office back in 1992.

In doing so, he leaves his girlfriend played by Elizabeth Banks, telling her he supposedly will only be gone two months.

To hide from his daughter who his mother might be in the story, he changes names, which is something she gets excited about, calling it “a love story mystery.” I also thought it was a nice little plot element to keep people guessing.

From there he chronicles his whole life leading up to 2008, which involve not only Banks, but also Isla Fisher and Rachel Weisz.

All three women give worthy performances as they appear in various times of his story, and you never quite know when and where they’ll pop-up. I especially liked Fisher, who was spirited and refreshing.

The film does a remarkable job of being told alongside the Clinton story, with the scandals, the election and the calls for impeachment. How Reynolds changes over time to coincide with those events is pretty cool.

There are a few quibbles I had with the movie, which is why it’s not elevated to the chick-flick status of something like Notting Hill, or Love Actually.

First off, this movie can be SLIGHTLY compared to When Harry Met Sally, in the way it is sort of an “epic” story told over 16 years and is about a woman who he’s destined to be with despite never quite knowing for sure who that might be.
Yet unlike Harry and Sally, Maybe didn’t do a fabulous job at making you believe they were in the time they were. The music was spot on, but the hair, the clothes, the makeup…felt pretty much the same over all 16 years.

At one point one of the girls says something like “Wow, it’s you…I almost didn’t recognize you…” and you had to chuckle because Reynolds didn’t look different in ANY scene.

The other quibble is really Reynolds himself. I feel like the guy is hilarious and have loved him since Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. He’s in a movie coming up called Chaos Theory and the trailer alone showcased him being a lot funnier than in this film.

He seemed a bit flat for some reason, and it has to be the way the part was written for him. Nothing flashy, nothing to showcase his great humor skills. Just a steady performance.

It was almost a romantic semi-comedy, because it felt like a few times it went quite awhile without having a funny scene.

But overall, I loved the way they told the story. Maya interrupts Will like Fred Savage did to Peter Falk in The Princess Bride, and you get warm fuzzies at the end like you always should in a movie like this.

AML Rating: B