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Film review: "Definitely, Maybe"
Published: Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - 7:14pm
Starring Ryan Reynolds,
Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Banks,
Isla Fisher, Rachel Weisz
Released: Feb. 14, 2008
Expressing love, hardship, and rebirth in a style set uniquely between 20th- and 21st-century cinema, this is a great choice for any romantic-comedy movie night.
FROM THE MOMENT “Definitely, Maybe” started, I knew it was going to set itself apart from the average romantic comedy.
When I stepped into the theater I was expecting to see a film where the leading man tries to rebuild his life after a divorce with the help of his daughter. I wasn’t expecting the film to take place almost entirely in the past.
The film, staring Ryan Reynolds as Will Hayes, starts out with Will receiving his divorce papers. Already feeling low, Will is excited to pick up his daughter, Maya (Abigail Breslin), from school.
Yet when Will arrives at the school he finds that the young students have just received a lesson on sexual education.
The children are freaking out, and when Maya gets home she asks what happened between Will and her mother that tore them apart, from the beginning of their relationship to present day.
At first refusing, but then reluctantly giving in, he agrees to tell Maya the tale from when he and her mother first dated to the time they got divorced.
The catch is that he will change the names and leave it to Maya to guess which character is her mother.
Will’s story picks up post-college, when he is off to work on the campaign for Bill Clinton’s election.
In order to work on the campaign he must leave behind his college girlfriend, “Emily Jones” (Elizabeth Banks). Will asks Emily to wait for him during his time away in hopes of starting their life together upon his return.
Over the next few years Will meets “Summer Hartley” (Rachel Weisz), a writer who went to college with Emily, and “April Hoffman” (Isla Fisher), a spunky young woman who worked in a copy shop where Will once had to run an errand.
Will and Summer meet when Emily asks Will to drop something off at Summer’s apartment.
Although Summer is in a relationship at the time with an older professor, Hampton Roth (Kevin Kline), they later meet again at one of Hampton’s book readings. At this point broken up, Hampton suggests Summer do an article on the new campaign Will is working on. Through their work together, a romance develops.
April and Will are a pair that are never in the same place in their lives. Beginning their relationship as friends, the two keep running into one another over the next several years.
Either because of other relationships, jobs, or living in different countries, there always seems to be something that pulls them apart. Although both love the other at one point or another, the relationship never gets to be anything more than a close friendship, although both wanted more at some point.
The three women become Will’s three loves, and he develops on-again, off-again relationships with them. Each time something seems to be wrong that prevents Will from being happy.
Maya sees the significance of the three relationships and works with her dad to find happiness after his three heartbreaks.
I enjoyed the way the story was told very much. The movie switched back and forth between Will’s tale of his three loves and Maya’s reaction to it.
There are times when Maya is appalled by Will’s behavior in the story or how characters in the story treated Will. I think these times are necessary in order to remind the audience that the outcome of the events in the story already took place, and also to show, based on Maya’s and Will’s reaction to them, that neither of them are proud of some components of the tale.
I found myself wrapped up in the film, wanting to know which woman Will would end up with in the end, and which one Maya’s mother is.
The way the film was a story within a story was, in my opinion, an appropriate choice for this movie. The frame narrative showed Will’s character over the course of his adult life, through early life crises, love, numerous jobs, and becoming a father.
“Definitely, Maybe” is a great choice for any romantic-comedy movie night. The film expresses love, hardship, and rebirth in a style uniquely set between 20th- and 21st-century cinema.
“Definitely, Maybe” is currently playing at the Goodrich Savoy 16, 232 W. Burwash, Savoy, and the Beverly 18, 910 Meijers Drive, Champaign.
“DEFINITELY, MAYBE” AT A GLANCE
- Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, Isla Fisher, Kevin Kline
- Directed & written by: Adam Brooks
- Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Rated: PG-13
- Runtime: 112 min.
- Release date: Feb. 14, 2008
- Summary: Will Hayes, a thirtysomething Manhattan dad, is in the midst of a divorce when his daughter, Maya, starts to question him about his life before marriage. Maya wants to know everything about how her parents met and fell in love. And therein lies a tale.
- External sites: IMDb entry, official site
