Definitely, Maybe
Review by Todd Hertz | posted 2/14/2008
 1 of 2
The romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe starts with lead character Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) receiving divorce papers. Shortly after, his 10-year-old daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) starts asking Dad questions about his love story with Mom. After much prodding, he tells Maya his entire (and seemingly uncensored) dating history—with names changed—to see if Maya can guess which woman is her mom.
Why would he do that? Well, maybe (or definitely) it's just to give this romantic comedy a gimmick to make it different. And it works. This fresh "romantic mystery" formula gives the movie a kick of originality lacking from most cookie-cutter romantic comedies, including writer/director Adam Brooks' less successful stabs at the genre (Wimbledon, Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, French Kiss). There's a lot to like here, starting with the naturally affable Reynolds (best known from Van Wilder) in what could be a breakout role for him. He shares a very fun chemistry with Breslin (who stole Little Miss Sunshine, but has little more to do here than look cute). Rachel Weisz and Isla Fisher create great characters as two of Will's exes. And, on the surface, the movie is charming, likable, and sweet.
Abigail Breslin as Maya Hayes, Ryan Reynolds as her dad, Will
But when viewed more closely, Definitely, Maybe starts to unravel. After all, the whole gimmick that sets it apart (Maya's guessing game) is a mystery that the audience cannot possibly guess. But that's not because the puzzle is cleverly constructed—like Lost or something. Instead, Maya accurately spots her mom from Will's parade of girlfriends with one tiny detail she knows about her mom—but the audience doesn't. The gimmick unravels even more when you realize that if Will really told Maya the story out loud, he wouldn't mention the information that tips her off. It's a visual cue that she'd only pick up if she were watching this movie with us—not hearing a verbal story.
The mystery of Who's Maya's Momma? is heavily reliant on Will's turnstile love life. (This aspect prompts Maya to ask if there's a boy word for slut, but we'll get to that in a moment.) There are three women in Will's story: college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks), the liberal and ambitious Summer (Weisz), and the cute and sassy April (Fisher). To keep the mystery interesting, Will's love stories with the three continually weave in and out. After a while, it gets old. It seems like every time he breaks up with one, one of the others coincidentally pops up. Besides that, it's easy to pick out which romance the film is most invested in. After all, if you've seen enough romantic comedies, you can recognize the genre-inherent "cute meeting" and "sweet connection point" from a mile away.
Elizabeth Banks as one of Will's exes
Back to Will's turnstile love life: Some will applaud the movie for showing romance realistically. After all, it shows that love is hard. Relationships end. Divorce is real. Messy and confused humans result in messy and broken interactions. It is nice to see a movie not just end on that that big first kiss and swelling music leading us to believe they'll live happily ever after. Instead, by telling the love story of a couple in the throes of divorce, we see the sad and stark reality that any relationship could end happily if you just put the closing credits in the right place. However, what happens then?
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