I apologise, we feel bad, but there's no trailer available. ~Ed.
The best romantic comedy so far this year is Definitely, Maybe by a winning mile. By combining likeable characters with a reasonably tricky storyline, nobody’s going to feel cheated or nauseous by the time the end credits roll.
Ryan Reynolds plays Will Hayes, a 30-something professional on the eve of signing his divorce papers. His ten-year-old daughter Maya (Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin) is dead keen to find out how her mum and dad met. To explain the complex situation, Will tells her about the three women in his life (Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher and Rachel Weisz), changing the names and letting Maya guess which one is her mother.
Ryan Reynolds has never really impressed in the past; always ending up too smarmy or sarcastic to be endearing. But here he succeeds. His Will is slightly uncool, idealistic and wet. After first meeting him working on Bill Clinton’s campaign back in 1992, we watch as his youthful optimism takes a gradual slide. Sixteen years later, we find him a bit more world-weary and sharing some sparkling chemistry with his daughter.
It is slightly annoying how Will seems to find it so easy to move swiftly between such attractive women. The characters do tend to come off as opportunists; if one doesn’t work out, they’re on to the next one.
But unlike P.S. I Love You, which overdid the manipulative schmaltz with sugary excess, Definitely, Maybe doesn’t provide too many eye-rolling moments and never gets too touchy-feely or vomit-inducing. The only thing laid on a bit thick is the cuteness of daughter Maya. It only took a few tears from this great young actress to get a cinema of hankees out. But the film never lingers, and aside from running about ten minutes too long, keeps the pace up and the locations ticking over.
Most clever of all is how the film guides our emotions so that, whilst we want certain things to happen and characters to succeed, there is still the possibility to be surprised by the outcome. In true rom-com fashion, things wrap up in a satisfying manner, but not quite in the way that we were expecting. It’s not hard, in hindsight, to see which of the three women is painted in the best light, but this doesn’t tarnish the otherwise engaging journey.
The surprisingly melancholic theme seems to be that romantic love can provide happiness and joy, but can equally lead to heartache or loneliness, and that contentment is derived from the way we handle that contradiction. Hence the overriding impression one gets from Definitely, Maybe is that the film functions as a mature and thoughtful entry in the romantic comedy canon.
By Andrew Hedley, Flicks.co.nz
Its OK but its really nothing to write home about. Its twenty minutes too long and two of the most interesting things about the movie ( Rachel Weisz and Kevin Klein) are in the movie for maybe 15 minutes tops. Ryan Reynolds does fine but Weisz and Klein steal the show.
Decent comedy that should have been more. Rachel Weisz brings life to the film but she's hardly in it.
Reynolds continues to surprise many coming from and still dabbling in gross out comedies to becoming a solid romantic lead. His charisma and his sarcastic nature again shines through here and this role will be one of his most known of his career. Breslin seem to have been riding her success of Little Miss Sunshine during this film as she has a flood load of releases coming out. In hindsight it probably was a good call, but believe an unknown could have made the film a tad better. Of the female leads Isla Fisher finally puts together a complete performance and steals the show, but I’m biased. Despite labelled a romantic comedy, it does go beyond the typical story and is a winner in both sexes eyes.
Funny and sweet.
A romantic comedy that manages to be cute without sending viewers barrelling into the bathroom to toss their cookies.
The romantic-comedy genre attracts a lot of flack, but frankly, a lot of it is earned. I took a female friend along to this film thinking it might be a fun girls' night out, but we both agreed, we'd seen better, including the not great, but at least intermittently funny, Run Fatboy Run. If you prefer your love stories with a sprinkling of humour, I'd definitely recommend that one over this – no maybe about it.
Sweet, funny, simple, entertaining — everything a good rom-com should be. Definitely...
A nimble and winning little romance.
Elizabeth Banks is better than good, Isla Fisher is better than funny, and Rachel Weisz, who hasn't been treated well by Hollywood (yikes, Eragon and Fred Claus) since she won an Oscar for The Constant Gardener, is a constant goddess.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 3rd Apr 2008.
Release date: April 3rd 2008.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
