Woodlawn Villager Newspaper: Definitely, Maybe

Definitely, Maybe
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admin on 12 April, 2008 11:09:00
 
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.