How does a man renowned for playing a sardonic smart ass fair as a genuine, down to earth father figure? Well, if you’re Ryan Reynolds, you fair pretty well. The man more commonly known as Van Wilder has shown his range before; in fact he was one of the best parts of The Amityville Horror remake, one of the few, that is. With Definitely Maybe, Reynolds tries on his romantic leading man clothes and they don’t actually fit half bad. An additional surprise is that the movie itself is rather engaging and fun for a genre as stale as the romantic comedy.
Reynolds is Will Hayes, a recent divorcee with a daughter named Maya (Abigail Breslin). Due to circumstances beyond Will’s controlled and some ill-times sexual education at Maya’s school, Will ends up telling Maya the story of how he married her mother. Beginning back in the year 1992, Will’s dating his college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks). He moves to New York to work on Bill Clinton’s campaign where he makes his mark only to loose Emily. After Emily, he meets and dates Summer (Rachel Weisz), a writer who he meets after a delivering a package to her on Emily’s behalf. Then, always in the background, is April (Isla Fisher), who Will first meets as the copy girl at Clinton’s campaign office.
So when the film opened with a montage of Will walking to the tune of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People”, I rolled my eyes thinking, “Typical.” However, once the story got rolling, I was pleasantly surprised to find that what I was seeing wasn’t all that bad and, in fact, continued to evolve to pretty good. The “romantic mystery” angle worked good as it allowed writer/director Adam Brooks to toy around with some of the romance archetypes in a knowing manner. A smarter and attentive viewer might catch on to where the story is going, actually that’s an overestimation if you’ve ever seen any other romantic comedy ever.
Other sharp eyed viewers will probably be preoccupied with the fact that the 1990s of Definitely Maybe may not be the 1990s they remember living through (if they lived through them). The technology is pretty accurate (big cell phones mean big laughs), as well as the vintage soundtrack, and I guess the archival footage of Gennifer Flowers and Bill Clinton et al is more or less correct, but everything else is done with a wink and a prayer. Fortunately, the cast is wining enough to overcome temporal paradoxes and if that’s not good enough for you, then I’m sure that the movie itself will become the basis for another wonderful drinking game.
Definitely Maybe is light-hearted fun to be sure, and much better than any romantic comedy needs to be. The relationship between Will and Maya is sweet and funny, but manages to walk that fine line and not go all cutesy. Also commendable is the way Brooks cast each of the potential moms as flawed people with (metaphorical) warts as opposed to making one obviously the best pick and one an obvious terrible choice; it’s a common rom-com trap that I’m glad the movie doesn’t fall into. Except for the happy ending that is, thank goodness for the happy ending.
