By Linda Winsh-Bolard
Will Hayes {Ryan Reynolds} is separated from his wife and adores is precocious daughter, Maya {Abigail Breslin}. At the opening of the film he receives his divorce papers, and the same day Maya, who just had her first sex education class comes bustling with questions and asks him to explain what went wrong between him and her Mothers.
Will agrees, on the condition that he will change names and Maya will have to guess which of the women, who passed through his life, is her Mother. Three women were important to him: college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks), empty headed co-worker April (Isla Fisher) and aspiring journalist Summer (Rachel Weisz).
If it sounds convulsed and bewildering thing to do to an 11 years daughter, then it is also arrogant and self-promoting. Will manages to paint himself as nice, sensitive young man who was left behind by those gorgeous creatures. On closer look, one discovers that his love affairs overlapped and that the character development of those wonderful women is, to put it mildly, shallow. They never even seem to do anything on their own; it is always a reaction to the male.
The film is staged as recurring meeting between Will and the women. Constant replay of cuties, so to speak. Cliché? Of course, it was, after all, released on Valentine’s Day. The original contrived action development gets worse as the film goes on (When Will leaves Emily in Wisconsin to pursue his career in New York, she, afraid he will never return, insist that he must meet Summer.)
Will is the kind of romantic hero men love. He stars in “love mystery” for his own adoring daughter. He is disillusioned with politics, because while he had affairs, Bill Clinton did, too. While Will moves onto the much more honest career of advertising executive, the film somehow projects the sex scandals as Hilary Clinton’s fault. A woman beat the cheater on his career, is simply unforgivable. Will never grasps the possibility that he might have been deficient in his relationships.. It comes under the unspoken understanding of many males: she left me (I do not need to mention that she had found me in bed with somebody else).
Kevin Kline plays the drunken professor and mentor that Summer has an affair with. Again, her character is so underdeveloped that we don’t know why would she fall into that trap. He comes across as the strongest played adult part so maybe it were his acting abilities.
Why would any intelligent woman fall for Will is left to our imagination. Of course, one look at the billing gives you the answer as which of the females will be bound to Will for life, and frankly: insipid and flaky fit together. Reynolds acting was so remarkable that I thought it was John Cusack in his part, and wondered why was he so bland. Of course he was bland, he does not appear in this film at all.
Maya pronounces a number of sound bites more fitted to an adult. Else than that we have to wait until the end to see Ms. Bresling’s acting ability, which while mostly seen before, is pleasing.
It is not an offensive film, were it to be rated as chocolate, it would fall into the category of generic product rather than a Valentine Feast’s Godiva.
DEFINITELY, MAYBE
Universal
Working Title, StudioCanal
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Adam Brooks
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
Executive producers: Liza Chasin, Bobby Cohen
Co-executive producer: Kerry Orent
Director of photography: Florian Ballhaus
Production designer: Stephanie Carroll
Music: Clint Mansell
Costume designer: Gary Jones
Editor: Peter Teschner
Cast:
Will Hayes: Ryan Reynolds
April: Isla Fisher
Maya Hayes: Abigail Breslin
Russell McCormack: Derek Luke
Emily: Elizabeth Banks
Summer Hartley: Rachel Weisz
Hampton Roth: Kevin Kline
Gareth: Adam Ferrara
Arthur Robredo: Nestor Serrano
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13
