DEFINITELY, MAYBE
Reviewed by Sam Hatch
Definitely, Maybe was definitely a surprise – and a good one at that! Like plenty of other fellows, I was primarily attending this mystery-romcom for an expression of Valentine's Day indentured servitude. However, the final joke was on me as I found myself enjoying the movie as much as my girlfriend was.
It's a product of the imagination of writer/director Adam Brooks, known for penning other cinematic films pour filles such as Practical Magic, Wimbledon and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. And while the concept of this project doesn't feel wholly original (it seems to borrow liberally from CBS' hit television show How I Met Your Mother), I have to say that it still managed to woo me into its sickly sweet embrace.
The script is primarily constructed of flashbacks, as Ryan Reynolds' near-divorced Will Hayes tries consoling his too-wise daughter Maya (she's prone to speaking about penises and details of pregnancies, ain't that cute?) with a bedtime story about how he met her mom and fell in love with the woman. This framing element felt more to me like The Princess Bride, with the overly curious youth constantly interrupting the narrative story with multiple questions and premature conclusions.
The twist here is that Will was almost simultaneously involved with three potential mates back in the nineties, so he changes the guilty parties' names and tells the tale of all three liaisons, challenging his daughter to decode which one eventually became her mother. It's a cute gimmick that keeps the audience guessing as well, as Maya takes notes and constructs a chart detailing the pros and cons of each particular candidate.
This thread of candidacy is a reflection of young Will's job as a frustrated political consultant trapped in the lower level cogs of Bill Clinton's '92 presidential campaign. Will was a hotshot speech writer back home in Wisconsin, but predictably finds himself in charge of fetching coffees and stocking toilet paper once established in the big apple.
One of the potential maternal figures is Emily (Elizabeth Banks, who plays Betty Brant in the Spider-Man films), another Cheese State-er who finds herself left behind in the wake of Will's unbridled career ambition. Not that she lets him go unconditionally, for she charges him with delivering a diary to her old college chum Summer Hartley (Rachel Weisz). Of course Will and his new best friend Russell (Derek Luke) are quick to crack the parcel open, though only one of them likes what he finds inside.
This delivery request leads him into the mysterious folds of Summer's life, and into the cantankerous presence of her current beau – a much older college professor named Hampton Roth (Kevin Kline). Kline is a hoot as the opinionated writer full of piss of vinegar, and he feels like an amalgam of John Mahoney's drunken screenwriter from Barton Fink and Michael Douglas' character in Wonder Boys.
The third woman on the dating roster is Isla Fisher's April, an apathetic campaign HQ copy girl blessed with a naturally acerbic wit. She and Will become close friends, but it seems that one of the pair are usually promised to another whenever romantic sparks fly. There's a subplot here involving a lost book from April's childhood that reminded me a lot of a similar device in the oft-annoying Serendipity, which underlined the thought that this is so much more genuine and natural than that film.
The tangled knot of romantic ups and downs that ensues keeps the energy fresh while never devolving Will's character into a neurotic himbo. It's also refreshing that while he does make bum choices again and again, both he and his potential partners are good people at heart, unlike the aforementioned Serendipity – where the protagonists were selfish louts willing to injure the decent people around them in the name of some silly game of fate.
The script is also deft in leading us viewers into nominating one character as our choice for Will while making us believe that we came up with the thought on our own. There's also the bonus of added plot layers involving that choice as the finale grows more complicated than expected. It avoids a simple ending, and makes sure that our hero faces the consequences for some of his unsavory deeds and questionable motives.
Ryan Reynolds had a lot to make up for between his abetting the remake of The Amityville Horror (the one with the beard) and dreck like Just Friends (the one with the fat suit), not to mention overcoming the fact that plenty of people don't know that he and Dane Cook aren't the same guy. Yet he's genuinely good here, delivering a modicum of comedic wisecracking while aptly bringing elements of sorrow, confusion and lovelorn angst to the table.
For some reason I really loved the '90s flashback element, perhaps because it reminded me of when I was a moody young man sitting around listening to Morphine songs while failing in my love life. I also enjoyed the running theme of books and writing being an integral element of the romance. In any case, you should definitely put this on your short list of potential date night movies.