Review

Review Date: 24-February-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Definitely, Maybe (2008)

"Definitely, Maybe" is a rosily jaded soft-core drama in need of a better title. Like its cousins the romantic comedies, it presents attractive men and women stumbling on the way to love, yet it treats the stumbling as an inevitability of adulthood rather than an opportunity for humor. This, along with consistent flashes of amusing dialogue, is enough to recommend it.

The bland but affable Ryan Reynolds stars as Will Hayes, an ad executive and father who is approaching his mid-life crisis years with the ink still wet upon his divorce. In a preposterous contrivance to begin his story in flashback mode, his daughter (Abigail Breslin) learns about sex at school and arrives at one of her paternal visits brimming with questions. The anatomical inquiries lead to a curiosity about her father's amorous history, including where her mother fit into the picture. (Apparently she has gone through 10 or so years without ever hearing how her parents met. Sure.) Dad is either a softy or desperate for someone to talk to, for he launches into the details (some of which seem inappropriate for a child) that form the bulk of the movie.

It is refreshing to find that Will's past does not contain an obvious Ms. Right and Ms. Wrong, even up through the end. (I don't think I am being horribly unromantic by viewing the ending as a continuation of a journey, with happiness one option among many.) He starts out by leaving his college sweetheart (Elizabeth Banks) in Wisconsin for a temporary stint in New York on Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. At this point he is a callow youth whose faith in his scripted relationship back home allows him to reach for his dreams. (First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes junior Democrat in a baby carriage!) But the city and separation take their toll, and a couple years later Will is still in New York heading up a gubernatorial campaign, falling for a budding journalist (Rachel Weisz), and playing pen-pal with a platonic friend who lacks his certainty of purpose and is trying to find herself (Isla Fisher). Each of these women is lovely in her own way, although Weisz's character gets points off for her entanglement with an icky, self-absorbed author (Kevin Kline). Fisher's character, on the other hand, prompts Will to dub a hideous pop song a "cure for the will to live." Points to the woman who inspires wit.

Forward they all go through reunions and break-ups and periods of disillusionment, with one person reaching for something of value while the others fall back on what they know. It is clear from the start that the culmination of the story is not Will's eventual marriage, and it turns out to be his (and others') refusal to stop looking for fulfillment. This is not bad for a movie that appeared from the preview to be so much schmaltzy fluff. Although the setup of the lesson is artificial, the expression and meaning make it work.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.