Definitely, Maybe

review by Sydney Nusinov

Rachel Weisz needs to have astrong word with her agent.The star of The Constant Gar-dener and The Fountain shouldbe above playing third orfourth banana in a romanticcomedy. Weisz is one of a trio of ac-tresses who play significantothers to Ryan Reynolds’s WillHayes. Weisz plays SummerHartley, who when we meether, is shacking up with hercollege professor (a welcomeappearance by Kevin Kline).The other two love interests areApril (Isla Fisher) and Emily(Elizabeth Banks).

Will is on the verge of divorceand his daughter, Maya(Abigail Breslin) asks him howhe and mom met and if therewere any other significantwomen in his life before mom.Her sudden curiosity comesafter a sex-ed class at school.Will tells the tale of his threemajor relationships as a bed-time story, but he changes allthe names and Maya has toguess which one ends up be-ing her mom. We get to guessas well, which makes thingsless predictable.

What, at first, seems like ashort story, actually spans over16 years. The movie’s runningtime of an hour and 51 min-utes could have used sometrimming.

Will works in politics, and wesee him get his start, right outof college, on the Clinton ’92campaign. His love life playsout a lot like a campaign. We see each woman’s stock riseand fall. The only problem isWill votes for all of them. Thefilmmakers kind of cheat. Justwhen we think we have every-thing figured out, each of thewomen make another appear-ance in Will’s life and ultimatelynone of them strike up any realchemistry with him.

The actress who comes out ontop is Breslin. The breakoutchild star of Little Miss Sun-shine is precious and preco-cious.

Despite being overly long anda bit lackluster, Definitely,Maybe is a grown-up moviewith realistic situations replac-ing fairy tale platitudes. It’s nota drama, but a mature comedythat doesn’t sink to slapstickand cliche. Well, if you can for-give the final scene where Willand Maya hail a cab and makea desperate dash to find truelove.