Movie Reviews

DEFINITELY, MAYBE * * *

Surely it’s not too early to feel nostalgic for 1992. After all, it was 16 whole years ago. No iPods yet — and those clunky cell phones! Kurt Cobain was still alive and Bill Clinton hadn’t even met Monica Lewinsky, much less have sexual relations with that woman. Thankfully, writer-director Adam Brooks doesn’t wallow too obnoxiously in the not-so-distant kitsch, and mainly uses the period to establish the story of Ryan Reynolds’ Will, a disillusioned New York ad man who’s just been served divorce papers. That afternoon, he picks up his 10-year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin) from school and is horrified to discover that she and her classmates have had a sex education lesson, which prompts a flurry of uncomfortable questions about where she came from and who else Will dated besides her mom. He tells her of his romantic past as a bedtime story, changing the names so she (and we) won’t know which girlfriend became her mother until the end. There’s Emily (Elizabeth Banks), his wholesome college sweetheart from Wisconsin; April (Isla Fisher), a flighty but quick-witted aide he meets while working on Clinton’s presidential campaign; and the sophisticated writer Summer (Rachel Weisz), who’s out of his league. The characters are distinctly drawn and well cast, with each woman believably shaping Will into the man he becomes. But while Brooks has made an inventive romantic comedy — something that seems impossible to do these days — his ending takes way too long and makes too many twists.
— Christy Lemire, AP

From left, actors Rachel Weisz, Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin, Isla Fisher and Elizabeth Banks, pose at the premiere of "Definitely Maybe" Tuesday in New York City.
((AP Photo))