Review of Definitely, Maybe (2008) by Blake P — 12 Mar 2012

After having her first Sex Ed. class, ten-year old Maya (Breslin) decides that she wants to find out who her mother is. Her dad Will (Reynolds) is about to get divorced, but Maya is unconvinced the woman is her real mother, since she knows her dad so well.

She convinces Will to tell the story of how he and her mom met, but will wisely changes the names-- throughout the '90's he falls for three very different women-- Emily (Banks), the girlfriend who has a hard time with the fact that Will has moved to New York, Summer (Weisz), the sexy, intelligent and hard-working career woman, and April (Fisher), a free-spirited best friend of Will's.

As the story unfolds, the surprise isn't great, but Maya is convinced that the woman that her dad loves is in fact, not her mother. "Definitely, Maybe" is one of those rare romantic comedies that is so much more realistic than all the other ones in its genre, and has its heart in the right place.

Nowadays, we associate the genre with annoying leading women like Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, or Katherine Heigl, but because this movie is so unusual in its casting, and so much less cliched that I have to admit I enjoyed this, and I usually hate romantic comedies.

The characters are all (for once) human, and they all make mistakes, and yet with all the flaws we still like (most of) them. Reynolds is a likable lead, with Fisher and Weisz doing their very best to try to be real women, not some made-up one like Rachel McAdams likes to show so frequently, but its Abigail Breslin that steals the show like she does most of the time.

And the writing, is so sharp and funny, that there was not one minute that I wasn't convinced that the words coming out of these peoples mouths were forced at all. "Definitely, Maybe" may not be very groundbreaking, or even that memorable, but it proves that there's some life left in the romantic comedy genre.