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Those thinking about going to see “Definitely, Maybe” should definitely, not maybe, reconsider.
Through a terribly contrived plot device involving a premature sex education class at his daughter’s elementary school, Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) finds himself telling his daughter Maya (Abagail Breslin) the story of how he chose her mother out of the three love interests of his life.
Maya wishes to know how her soon-to-be-divorced parents met after her awakening to the facts of sex. The story begins with his small town sweetheart, Emily (Elizabeth Banks), and progresses from one disappointing relationship to another; hardly ideal bedtime story material. Hayes presents the major love interests of his life, changing their names so that Maya can guess which one is really her mother.
The storyline in the film is awkward at best. The different elements just don’t come together very well. On one side there is a loving father who is bonding with his daughter, and on the other a complicated, and at times ugly, love story. Although he has created some moments of worthwhile comedy and romance, writer/director Adam Brooks has failed to unite these two pieces in order to produce a moving story.
It is borderline creepy how Hayes relates the story to his daughter, who is obviously too young to hear many of its nuances. The screenplay pulls it off, making it seem as though Hayes has unintentionally gotten carried away with his story and let slip some of the darker details.
This distasteful scenario reaches its peak when Maya calls her father a slut after hearing about his promiscuities. Maya’s level of information about sex also seems to waver throughout the film. On the same day she learns what sex, is she is suddenly calling her father a “slut” and a female character in the story a “bitch.” Later she wonders what a threesome is when he lets the term slip.
Though this film did little to highlight her acting abilities, Abigail Breslin is a charming young actress.In fact, that was the obvious motivation behind making her the subject in most of the scenes within the trailer. This is deceiving because she actually has a very small role in the film. Had the emphasis of the story been more on this father-daughter relationship and the subject matter more age appropriate, this may have been a more successful movie.
Reynolds has very little emotional range throughout the film. Though his character gets his heart broken multiple times, it is hard to really connect with him. He seems out of place on screen as the father of a young girl and produces an overall shallow performance. His female counterparts are adequate in their roles, but the story is unfortunately centered around him.
There is one interesting aspect that had little to do with the love story. While Hayes is in New York City working on the on the ’92 Clinton campaign, real footage is used in order to authenticate the flashbacks of his story.
This technique is used again when showing the famous footage of Clinton denying his affair with Lewinski, and George W. Bush making an unintelligent comment years before being elected. This attention to detail extends to set design, and there is even a shot of pre-9/11 New York City in which the towers are still standing. The intricacies of campaign office culture are also captured quite nicely, adding some greatly needed comedy to the film. Actually, the storyline involving his career ups and downs was the most interesting aspect of the film.
Somewhere buried under weak performances and a poorly constructed plotline is a good story worth telling. Some of the details of the relationships between Will and his girlfriends work very nicely, but sadly the focus of the story is under-developed.
The real pity goes to the moviegoers who ruined their Valentine’s Day with this terrible film.
