“Definitely, Maybe” (Universal Pictures)
Which One of You Witches Is My Mother
“Definitely, Maybe” is a movie full of romance and fun. It has a great cast and an intriguing storyline but somehow after it is all over the memories aren’t so good. It has something to do with the silliness of the plot, which is a man telling his daughter stories about his old girlfriends and then having her guess which one is her mother.
Ryan Reynolds stars as Will Hayes, a man who is in the process of getting a divorce. His daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) asks him to tell her about his old girlfriends. He begins to do so and explains that one of the three women in the story ended up being her mother. It seems the young girl knows nothing about her mother and father’s background even though she appears to be overly intelligent.
The first woman Will mentions is Emily (Elizabeth Banks). He changes the women’s names so Maya won’t know which one is her mother. Emily was his college sweetheart and the one he leaves to go to New York and take a job in the Bill Clinton campaign office.
In New York he meets Emily’s friend Summer (Rachel Weisz). She writes for a magazine and is having an affair with her college professor Hampton Roth (Kevin Kline). Will later gets involved with her too. But even while this is happening he is cultivating a friendship with April (Isla Fisher), a girl who also works at the campaign headquarters.
Emily comes back into his life and the other two women are good friends of his so the revelation of who Maya’s mother is adds a nice surprise to the film. It could be any of the three and you wouldn’t be surprised. Still it is amazing that Maya has never asked her mother how she and her father met, or even about her background before she met Will.
This lack of logic reduces the movie from a great film to an okay one. You like the basis for the premise but you don’t like the premise itself. It all feels fake and that makes the movie feel fake. For the time you are watching it, it is alright; but once you get out and start thinking about it then it goes downhill.
Reynolds is developing into an appealing leading man. He is handsome in a boyish way and the scenes with Breslin have a real tenderness to them. Fisher is the most appealing of the three women and she has the best lines and the best character to portray. Weisz is almost too cool and Banks is almost too cold.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and sexual situations.
“Definitely, Maybe” could’ave, should’ave, would’ave been a better movie had the plot not gotten snagged and snarled. It has a warmth and a sweetness to it but the illogical plot sapped that appeal right out of it.
I scored “Definitely, Maybe” an indecisive 5 out of 10.
