Hola all. Massawyrm here.

At first glance Definitely, Maybe is just another by the numbers, Valentine's ready, made to order, predictable romantic comedy. It's got an adorable kid (Abigail Breslin), a hunky, funny lead (Ryan Reynolds) and of course a bevy of beautiful starlets to vie for his attention. In other words, exactly the type of film a large portion of you would rank on your things to do list just below Gouging your eyes out slowly with a serrated pocket knife. The kicker is, Definitely, Maybe is anything but. I mean, sure, it's romantic. And yeah, it's funny. But it is by no means a romantic comedy. In fact, the closest thing one could compare it to is About a Boy.

This isn't a film about the formula. That's the first thing you need to know. Romantic comedies rely heavily on the formula to do what they need to do. They're comfortable. They're lovable. They're that sweatshirt you've got in the back of your closet that you pull out to wear on days you're not leaving the house. You know exactly how it's going to end the moment the theatre first goes dark. Romantic comedies aren't about how it all ends. It's about getting there in the first place.

But this, this is something different. This isn't at all about Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. This isn't quite the fantasy. This is a film obsessed with the reality of it all. It's not about what it is going to take to get these two characters together. It's about the stupid little shit that breaks them up – but without being as much a downer as The Break-Up. It's a story about how now matter how good it is, no matter how perfect a love you've found, no matter what stars lined up to bring you together in the first place, odds are pretty good that you're gonna find a way to fuck it all up. We've all done it. Every single one of us has a great The One That Got Away story. And that's the story that Will Hayes has to tell. In fact, he has three.

Will Hayes is just like you or me. He started out on the path to greatness, convinced that he would one day conquer the world, only to wake up to the harsh reality that life isn't about what you want to be. It's about what you become trying to get there. And now his daughter has asked him to explain how she got here. How he met her mother. Simple question, right? No. Like any story involving love, it's complicated. There's a lot of bullshit involved. And he doesn't want to tell it. She's too young and the story is too long. But his daughter asks. And asks again. So he tells her. The grand story of how you came to be and the women I loved along the way by Will Hayes.

But for Will Hayes it is only when he tells the story that he realizes what it all means. And THAT is what Definitely, Maybe is all about. It's not a film about the great mystery of who he's gonna hook up with at the end. Sure, there's plenty of that in there to keep you entertained along the way. But it's about him realizing who he should have been with the whole time. If, you know, he wasn't a complete fucking moron. Just like the rest of us.

Definitely, Maybe is absolutely adorable - a smart, refreshing surprise after a seemingly unending string of mediocre to terrible attempts at evoking the same kind of feelings. It is a wonderfully sweet, comic trip down memory lane taking us from college to marriage complete with all the shit in between. Ryan Reynolds once again gets the chance to use his wry wit and deadpan delivery to create a rather likable everyman without ever falling into the trap of being the super hunk. Will Hayes is a pretty grounded, regular, flawed character who only seems to realize what he's got when it's gone. Every time.

Abigail Breslin is equally likable, but don't let the trailers fool you. She's barely in this. Oh sure, she's pivotal to the story, but here she's playing the same exact role as Fred Savage in The Princess Bride - she's just the kid there to interrupt the story so we can bring in narration without ever being narrated to. But when she is on screen, she lights it up and has an incredible father/daughter chemistry that is going to get all those girls out there with lingering daddy issues to tear up at least twice.

The of course there is Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher and Rachel Weisz. Dude. Take your pick. They're all gorgeous and they're all going to steal your heart at least once. Each girl gives you a dozen different reasons for wanting to smack Will around for fucking it up, which is after all the point of the film. To single one out is impossible. They're all stunning, and like every single one of your ex-girlfriends, stands each as their own, special, individual piece of this story, equally indivisible while entirely separate from each of the others.

What can I say? I was entirely charmed by this. It is an incredibly smart, deeply satisfying, warm, snuggly film. I'm probably gonna take my wife to see it later today, and if you've got a date of any kind this weekend there's not really much of an excuse not to check this one out yourself. This comes almost entirely recommended of sorts or something for anyone who doesn't instantly spasm at the notion of romantic comedies. Those that do however should probably avoid this. It is romantic. It is a comedy. Add in the adorable kid and this should be your mother fucking kryptonite. As much as it breaks convention, it doesn't shatter it. So it probably won't stray far enough from what you expect to not want to hit me with a brick for recommending it.

Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm

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