Definitely, Maybe
I confess, I was a little squeamish about seeing this movie. My companion’s a Ryan Reynolds fan, but he’s an unproven lead for me. Abigail Breslin is adorable but clearly she is more the framing device for the movie’s story than the meat of the thing, so I can’t rely on her to save it. I am SO glad I went. This movie has a little of everything, blended together without the horrible Hollywood fantasy filter that could have ruined it a dozen times over. The preview gives too much away, but the idea is that a newly divorced dad, Will Hayes (Ryan Roberts, escaping his filmography) is telling the story of how he met his ex-wife (TBD) to his adorable daughter Maya (Breslin). So, it’s a love story, but one in which we already know the answer: this relationship worked a while, then ended in divorce. It’s a modern fairy-tale romance, peppered with bittersweet realism.
Reynolds of course is the lead, being now-dad and then-courtier to the equally eligible and charming Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, and Isla Fisher. All the women are great, all could be a viable partner for our hero, whom we come to love through how he loves them. It’s liberating not to be hung up like in a regular romantic comedy, waiting impatiently for the hero to realize that the horrible shrew he’s shackled to is the wrong person. Instead, we are rooting for all of them and feeling the sadness when things don’t work out. The looming spectre of the a priori marriage and divorce is there, but we can lose ourselves in the romance of the past stories, since the women are all good catches and seem to love him all well. We share Breslin’s enthusiasm to work out the puzzle, but really we just sit back and let the story pour out over us.
William makes the usual rookie mistakes that a young man would make – he’s young, he’s not seeing the big picture, and his befuddlement is believable and even endearing. Hayes does grow up, and make better, more mature mistakes, and better choices too, as do his paramours. The fact that his character is my age drove some of the details home for me as well. Maya doesn’t understand why her parents are divorcing, and hearing these stories makes it harder, in a way, for her. She has a scene late in the movie of lovely childish wishfulness that is just priceless and should pang at any child of divorce’s heart. How can any relationship with such great starts ever end so sadly? By default we know two didn’t work out, since he married “Mom,” but of course, that doesn’t work out either.
There is no “happy ending” in life as there is in a movie – everything real and worth having is tinged with lessons learned on the way. Romantic comedies end with the hookup – this one begins after it fell apart, as life goes on. Definitely, Maybe is a terrible title, but it is romantic indeed, and funny and sad (our audience was synchronizing sniffles with us) and heartbreaking and heartwarming.
Despite all the implicit sadness, it’s a delicious, positive, romantic movie full of love and sparkling eyes and wit and forehead slapping. We get a rare look at a long personal journey through relationships (including his relationship to politics) from the point of view of the man, and a new appreciation of the silver lining on even the saddest cloud. Fun, witty, careful dialogue and solid big Movie Moments, together with a terrific story arc and great casting equals a big winner.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 2/14/08
Time in minutes 112
Director Adam Brooks
Studio Universal Pictures
