A Sure Thing. Sort Of.

I was going to start off this first review by promising that I would never stoop to punning. You know, that I wouldn't write reviews featuring those clever attempts at plays on words that make you groan nine times out of ten, but that every so often have you nodding at your computer screen (or magazine, newspaper or parchment scroll) in amusement and admiration. But anyone who knows me for more than five minutes knows that however well-intentioned that sentiment might be, I would never quite be able to fulfill it. Much like the premise and promise of the subject of this review, Definitely, Maybe…

Definitely, Maybe ("DM") is a decent romantic comedy that delivers no more and no less than what one expects from the kind of chick flick that you're signing up to go see based upon the preview. Though DM tries valiantly to rise above the predictability of its genre with some nice, original brushstrokes, it ultimately does not, making it the kind of movie one might describe when asked "how was it?" as "good" with a little pitch to one's voice because, while there's nothing bad about it, there's nothing all that memorable about it. It's the kind of movie that you enjoy while you're watching it, assuming the rom-com genre is your cup of tea, and then you move on with the rest of your life.

That being said, there's plenty to like about DM. Ryan Reynolds is utterly charming as Will Hayes, a soon-to-be-divorced dad to Abigail Breslin's Maya. Reynolds has a self-deprecating ease about him that tempers the earnestness of Will (a good thing, because something needs to), and he cements his leading-man status with this performance. A clever set-up at Maya's school (that I would describe but is really far funnier to experience unspoiled) instigates an interrogation by Maya, and Will agrees to make like Bob Saget and recount the story of "How I Met Your Mother."

Thus we are sucked into the story of Will and His Three Serious Girlfriends, because everything always works better in threes, and we see Will meet girl, Will try to marry girl and Will lose girl several times. Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher and Rachel Weisz are each lovely and amusing in their own way and Breslin's Maya is cute without being cloying. Writer/director Adam Brooks' (writer of such similar fare as Bridget Jones, The Edge of Reason, Wimbledon and Practical Magic) choice to make Will an idealistic Clinton campaigner, paralleling Will's triumphs and setbacks with Clinton's, enlivens the story and distinguishes it. And Kevin Kline is a riot as dirty old man Hampton Roth, once you get past the shock of just how old he looks. Such flavor nicely tempers the fairly predictable plot that plods a bit at times and culminates in the conclusion you've been anticipating.

All in all, DM is worth the price of (matinee) admission. So if a chick flick that'll definitely make you smile and maybe choke up a bit sounds appealing, then spending an afternoon with DM is just what the reviewer ordered.