| Deninitely Maybe (2008) |
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| Saturday, 23 August 2008 | ||||||
 I have to admit right up front that I consider myself to be a mild Ryan Reynolds fan. I’m not going to say he’s one of the world’s great thespians by any stretch of the imagination, but what he lacks in raw talent or artistic craftsmanship, he more than makes up for with solid comedic timing, and an undeniable charm. Hell, he was the best part of Blade 3 (and the only decent part of Blade 3 come to think of it). I’ve also become a big fan of Elizabeth Banks… add Rachel Weisz and Isla Fisher to the mix and you’ve got my attention.
THE GENERAL IDEA Definitely, Maybe revolves around Ryan Reynolds who plays a freshly divorced father on one of the days he has his young daughter (he has her 2 days a weeks). At school, an inappropriate teacher decides to talk sex ed to the far too young children, which inspires Reynolds’ daughter to want to know how her parents met and fell in love in the first place. Reynolds and his daughter decide to make a game out of it as he tells her the story of the 3 women he’s been in love with during his life, and she has to try to figure out which one ends up being her mother.
THE GOOD It’s not often that I’ll refer to a child’s performance as one of the “good” things in my reviews. However, I’ll mention it here. Abigail Breslin does a terrific job as Reynolds daughter in the film, which is saying a lot because there were a number of scenes that could have easily been ruined by another child actor. No, she won’t get any Oscar nominations for her role, but she handled those harder scenes in such a way that she didn’t become a distraction, and that’s a pit most films with child actors fall into.
Ryan Reynolds has never been better. Was it the most challenging role of his career? No. Was it the most emotionally diverse role of his career? No. But I have no problems saying, that in this little pseudo romantic comedy, Ryan Reynolds gives the best performance I’ve ever seen him give. He still has his charm. He still has his wit. However, you see added on top of that a new maturity. It’s hard to quantify other than to say you can see him growing as an actor. He’s added subtlety and nuances to his performance that gives it a much stronger impact. Not only do you laugh with him in the comedy scenes, but he makes you also believe the emotional ones. The best way I can explain it is to compare his role to that of Jim Carrey’s in “Liar Liar” (which I loved by the way). In Liar Liar Carrey is hilarious, but one negative is that in the scenes that are supposed to be “emotional” or have some impact, you can’t separate Carrey from the clown. You still expect him at any moment to break out of the serious moment and say “yuk yuk” and make some strange rubber face. Reynolds navigates these two elements with ease, and I think ultimately, his ability to be both funny man and father is what makes this movie work so well.
The story does suffer a little from being a bit formulaic at times. No doubt about it. However, as I mentioned to the girl I saw the movie with: “Sometimes a recipe is a recipe for a reason… because it works”. Definitely, Maybe does use a few cinematic recipes during the run time, but they’re all done well, and the resulting entree is delicious. I’ve also got to mention that Kevin Kline is in the film. This man is a minor deity to me and can do no wrong in my eyes. He plays a drunken literature professor who constantly sexes up his much younger grad students. I can’t imagine Jack Nicholson don’t it better than Kline did in the film.
Running just under the surface of the film are themes of political idealism as well. Reynolds has dreams of being president of the united states and is one of the many volunteers in the first Bill Clinton campaign. But as the story progresses, we see this idealist become disillusioned with the heroes he holds in such high regard. This all has a direct impact on how his story evolves through the movie and I thought was handled brilliantly. THE BAD Isla Fisher stands out as one of the weaknesses of the film. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Fisher. But she just wasn’t able to make her character seem real. Too aloof, too air headed and just so far out there that it became impossible for me to believe any rationale person, let alone Reynolds’ character, would ever fall in love with her. Scenes where her character is supposed to be emotionally fragile, vulnerable and sweet, come off as silly, annoying and a bit bothersome. This weakness is highlighted even more by the fact that the two other love interests (Elizabeth Banks and Rachel Weisz) were played so strongly (especially Weisz).
OVERALL Definitely, Maybe is a funny, warm and ultimately endearing film that I just loved. Ryan Reynolds shows us he’s evolving as an actor, the framework of the movie (Reynolds telling his daughter the story of his three life loves) is interesting and functionally works very well. I’m not the biggest fan of romantic comedies at all, but if more of them were like Definitely, Maybe, I’d be a whole lot more excited about seeing new ones when they came out.
Overall I’m going to give Definitely, Maybe an 8.5/10
3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved." |
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