Definitely, Maybe (2008)

Review from ./efilmcritic.com
than any other website! Ebertfest 2008: Romance, Cigarettes and the Hulk? DVD Reviews for 4/18: "Slowly I Turn. Just by the numbers, "Definitely, Maybe" doesn't make for an uplifting romantic comedy - its premise, after all, depends on things not working out for at least two of the women in the flashbacks, while the present day framing sequences tell you right off the bat that the ones that do get together wind up getting divorced. And even better, there's an adorable little girl caught in the middle of this disintegrating marriage! Things kick off when Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) picks...more

Review from mercurynews.com
Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), a thirtysomething Manhattanite, is in the middle of divorce proceedings when his young daughter (Abigail Breslin) asks him about his life before marriage, including how he met and fell in love with her mother. Will flashes back to 1992 and recounts his romances with three women, changing their names so that his daughter must guess which one became his wife....more

Review from nytimes.com
“Definitely, Maybe,” a nimble and winning little romance written and directed by Adam Brooks, begins with one of those awkward Important Talks that parents are sometimes required to have with their children. In this case Maya Hayes (Abigail Breslin) needs some debriefing after a sex education class at her Manhattan elementary school. She’s acquired some technical vocabulary but not a lot of context, and so it falls to her dad, Will (Ryan Reynolds), to do the necessary explaining. This is a delicate task since in the grown-up world of love, theory and practice frequently part company, which is what Will and...more

Review from imdb
Saw an advance screening and actually enjoyed it!

and that's saying a lot since I'm not a "romantic comedy" kind of gal.

OK, so I really wanted to see Cloverfield, but it was sold out. As I walked away from the box office, a guy said they were having an advance screening and I could see it for free. What the heck, free is free, so off I went.

The little girl is fabulous. Good casting. She's adorable without being perfect. Kevin Kline was an absolute delight as an unapologetic drunken writer/professor who also happens to be quite full of...more

Review from ./avclub.com
Romantic comedies have such a lousy batting average—somewhere between movie spoofs and torture porn—that even when a half-decent one like Definitely, Maybe comes along, it's distinguished more by what it doesn't do than what it does. To that end, Definitely, Maybe doesn't rely on amnesia, magic (black or practical), the supernatural, cutesy-poo serendipity, or any other such high-concept gimmickry to get the job done. It also doesn't feature any gay-best-friend types, doesn't turn into a stand-up-comedy routine for the male lead, and doesn't clear the way to romance by making other potential partners seem treacherous or repugnant. In spite of a...more

Review from azcentral.com
Director: Adam Brooks. Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin, Isla Fisher. The first one involves research and luck. But the third has been solved by Definitely, Maybe. It has all the trappings of a predictable romantic comedy: A man looks back on the loves of his life, recounting them as a sort of late-night bedtime story for his 10-year-old daughter, whom he has for the night because his marriage has crumbled. Wrong. Definitely, Maybe is definitely a cut above your standard-issue genre fare, maybe way above. Which doesn't mean it's not cute and sweet. Ryan Reynolds stars as Will Hayes, the...more

Review from ./christiananswers.net
ChristianSpotlight.com — See home page for links to our index pages. Searching for answers? 1 hr. <IMG alt="Couple in love. What is true love and how do you know when you have found it? Learn how to make your love the best it can be. Discover biblical answers to questions about sex, marriage, sexual addictions, and more. “Three relationships. efinitely, Maybe” aims to be a sweet, romantic comedy. Throughout the movie, it succeeds. There were smiling moments and even funny ones. The movie opens up with Will Hayes (a convincing Ryan Reynolds) receiving his final divorce papers. After leaving work,...more

Review from ./christianitytoday.com
The Academy Awards are coming up soon. What's your choice for Best Picture? The romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe starts with lead character Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) receiving divorce papers. Shortly after, his 10-year-old daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) starts asking Dad questions about his love story with Mom. After much prodding, he tells Maya his entire (and seemingly uncensored) dating history&#151;with names changed&#151;to see if Maya can guess which woman is her mom. Why would he do that? Well, maybe (or definitely) it's just to give this romantic comedy a gimmick to make it different. And it works. This fresh "romantic...more

Review from chron.com
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! Thankfully, writer-director Adam Brooks doesn't wallow too obnoxiously in the not-so-distant kitsch with Definitely, Maybe, a surprisingly clever romantic comedy that starts brightly but unfortunately loses its spark at the end. That afternoon, he picks up his 10-year-old daughter Maya (the always adorable 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...more

Review from cinemablend.com
Site! Fans of the television sitcom How I Met Your Mother may sense something familiar in Definitely, Maybe. Well more than familiar actually. It�s basically the entire run of the series condensed down into a single movie, except minus Barney and that annoying laugh track. It begins with divorcee Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), cajoled by his precious young daughter (Abigail Breslin) into telling her the story of how he met and fell in love with her mother. Clad in PJs and buried beneath the covers, Breslin�s scenes with Reynolds are eerily reminiscent of Fred Savage and Peter Falk�s moments in...more

Review from citypaper.com
With the template for Valentine's Day rom-coms so firmly established, it's pleasant to run across a movie that tries to tweak the formula. Unfortunately, the effort put forward by Adam Brooks in Definitely, Maybe winds up getting hoisted on its own tweaky petard. Ryan Reynolds plays Will Hayes, a soon-to-be-divorced dad seeking to answer the simple question put forth by his daughter: "How did you and Mom meet?" Director/screenwriter Brooks answers the question by telling of the three women Dad fell in and out of love with, often contemporaneously. This mystery/love story is supposed to mollify young Maya (Abigail Breslin),...more

Review from citypaper.net
Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) is a determined idealist. This despite his early commitment to Bill Clinton and his upcoming divorce. When his daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) is exposed to sex education in school, he agrees to tell her the story of how he met her mother, which ends up being the story of his three serious girlfriends, their names changed and one in truth Maya's mommy. As he narrates, Adam Brooks' film shows, with occasional commentary or questions from adorable Maya. The women are variously compelling in his account, from hometown sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks) to aspiring political writer Summer (Rachel...more

Review from commonsensemedia.org
On the brink of divorce, ad exec William Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) is put on the spot by his young daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) when she demands to know how he and her mom fell in love (clearly, she's hoping that if he's reminded, they'll reconcile). He agrees to tell the story but turns it into a mystery, adding in details of his two other serious romances and changing names so Maya won't know which one's her mom. The action then flashes back to 1992, with eager young Will moving to New York City to volunteer for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign while...more

Review from ericdsnider.com
As regular readers may have noticed, my chief complaint about romantic comedies is that they tend to follow the same template, with no variation from the usual plotline. This puts me at odds with many members of the target audience, who view the genre's sameness as a virtue. They find comfort in the way every rom-com uses the same plot devices and character types. I suppose it's akin to re-watching a beloved film when you need an emotional boost, only instead of watching the same movie repeatedly you watch a different one that happens to be essentially the same as the...more

Review from ./ew.com
Biggest Oscar snubs ever, pt. Biggest Oscar snubs ever, pt. Biggest Oscar snubs ever, pt. Biggest Oscar snubs ever, pt. In the saga of his love life that he weaves as a bedtime story for his preteen daughter, Maya (Abigail Breslin), in Definitely, Maybe, Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) sounds like a man from Hope as he recounts the good old days of Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. Back then, Will was an idealistic campaign worker straight out of college in Wisconsin; today he's a Manhattan ad guy about to finalize his divorce from Maya's mother. The Clinton name-check (along with a...more

Review from filmblather.com
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, Derek Luke, Abigail Breslin, Kevin Kline. Directed by Adam Brooks. Rated PG-13. "Definitely. Maybe. Ignore the banal, mostly meaningless title, because Definitely, Maybe is nothing like the nondescript rom-com its moniker suggests. In fact, it's one of 2008's first great surprises, the rare mainstream film with the cojones to mess with romantic comedy conventions and expand the genre's usual diminutive scope. It uses the rom-com as a lens through which to look at its protagonist's entire life, an approach that turns out to be not nearly as reductive as it sounds....more

Review from filmjerk.com
I can swallow many preposterous ideas in a romantic comedy, but "Definitely, Maybe" contains a whopper that stands head and shoulders above them all. You're telling me that the script dreams up a main character who attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992, and he has no idea who Nirvana is? The screenwriter clearly wasn't doing his homework. On the eve of his divorce, Will Hayes (an immensely likable Ryan Reynolds) is trying to sort out what went wrong in his love life. When Will�s daughter (Abigail Breslin) requests the story of how her parents met, the frightened father instead makes...more

Review from filmmonthly.com
This hopeless romantic wasn't going to not figure out the "love story mystery" of the film Definitely, Maybe. in the film may have been inexperienced at such matters and not been able to figure it out, but I knew. I knew throughout the whole film how this one was going to turn out, not that that ruined it for me, as it actually enhanced my enjoyment. Abigail Breslin who had turned in such an amazing performance in Little Miss Sunshine does it again. There is just something about this young girl that in some aspects makes her seem much older than...more

Review from ./flickfilosopher.com
It’s an instant classic. I know, I know. It’s crazy. I don’t say things like this, not about movies that Hollywood -- Hollywood! (though, hmm, this is a joint production with a couple European film companies) -- wants us to believe are romantic and also funny, even if only in that doesn’t-the-bittersweetnes-of-life-make-ya-wanna-cry dramedy kind of funny. And I hate that I sound like an ad for the movie, like I’m speaking in exclamation points. But still. I’m pretty stunned right now. I mean, Ryan Reynolds is in this. Van Wilder himself. This is an actor who appeared in a “romantic comedy”...more

Review from ./hollywoodsnitch.com
By Matt Johnson: Definitely, Maybe succeeds in the two areas that it aims for, being both romantic and comedic. However, this movie is so much more than just a simple romantic comedy. The film focuses on Will Hayes (Reynolds), a man who has failed at every romantic relationship in his life, as he is trumped yet again and served with divorce papers. His daughter, Maya (Breslin), has just experienced the all important "Sex Ed" day at school. The trouble is that she's ten. Her curiosity leads her to wonder the real story behind her the way her parents met. Reluctant to...more

Review from ./kyw1060.com
amp;lt;!-- .Column_8374993_Td { text-align: left} .Column_8374994_Td { background-color: #262525; padding-top: 2px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 5px; border: #333333; border-style: dotted; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 1px} .Column_8374999_Td { background-color: #262525; border: #333333; border-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px} .Column_8375000_Td { background-color: #262525; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 5px; border: #333333; border-style: dotted; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 1px} .Column_8375001_Td { background-color: #FFFFFF; border: #b2b2b2; border-style: dotted; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 0px} .Column_8375003_Td { background-color: #FFFFFF; border: #b2b2b2; border-style: dotted; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 0px}...more

Review from ./philly.com
Will Hayes is a 30-something Manhattan dad in the midst of a divorce when his 10-year-old daughter, Maya, starts to question him about his life before marriage. Maya wants to know absolutely everything about how her parents met and fell in love. Will's story begins in 1992, as a young, starry-eyed aspiring politician who moves to New York from Wisconsin in order to work on the presidential campaign. For Maya, Will relives his past as an idealistic young man learning the ins and outs of big city politics, and recounts the history of his romantic relationships with three very different...more

Review from ./reel.com
Poor young Maya (Abigail Breslin) is having a difficult day. Her Manhattan public school just implemented a sex-ed program, opening up a world of questions she's not ready to have answered. She's still coming to terms with her parents' pending divorce. Convinced she needs to get to the bottom of their crumbling relationship, Maya asks her father, Will (Ryan Reynolds), to tell her the story of how he and her mother met. "It's complicated," he offers, desperately avoiding the difficult task. He isn't exaggerating. And while Will's story has more levels than a New York skyscraper, the pleasure comes in his...more

Review from rollingstone.com
I concede that there may be people who will cotton to this knockoff of TV's How I Met Your Mother. Me, I don't want to meet those people. Ryan Reynolds, a star still waiting to happen, plays a disillusioned ad guy (is there another kind?) with a precocious daughter (is there another kind?). Since the kid is played by Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin with no loss in solar energy, Daddy, on the eve of his divorce, is asked how he met Mommy. To stretch the movie that would have been over in five minutes out to feature length, he tells...more

Review from ./sfgate.com
This is a rare romantic comedy, one that treats men as men really are, as having actual feelings and monogamous, meaningful relationships that they cherish years later. It stars Ryan Reynolds as a guy looking back on his romances with three women and the life path he chose. Co-starring Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks and Isla Fisher....more

Review from themovieboy.com
quot;High Fidelity" and "Annie Hall" meets "The Princess Bride" in "Definitely, Maybe," a romantic dramedy in which a thirtysomething father's complicated past love life is relayed to his daughter via a bedtime story. The dad, a political-minded business type by the name of Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), is on the verge of signing divorce papers. This event, coinciding with a sex education class at school, leaves 11-year-old Maya (Abigail Breslin) curious about how her parents met and ultimately got together. Will begrudgingly agrees, turning the clock back sixteen years to find himself a recent college graduate who moves to New York...more

Review from ./themovieinsider.com
Ryan Reynolds, Elizabeth Banks, Derek Luke, Isla Fisher, Rachel Weisz, Abigail Breslin. Ex. Prod. Rated for sexual content, including some frank dialogue, language and smoking. Ryan Reynolds stars as Will Hayes, a 30-something Manhattan dad in the midst of a divorce when his 10-year-old daughter, Maya (Breslin), starts to question him about his life before marriage. Maya wants to know absolutely everything about how her parents met and fell in love. Will's story begins in 1992, as a young, starry-eyed aspiring politician who moves to New York from Wisconsin in order to work on the presidential campaign. For Maya, Will...more

Review from ./washingtonpost.com
Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), a thirty-something Manhattanite, recounts his romances with three women to his young daughter (Abigail Breslin). Releasing a movie on Valentine's Day can mean only one thing and, yes, "Definitely, Maybe" has it in big fragrant bouquets. At the center of the story, in which a father tells his young daughter the history of his love life, is Ryan Reynolds, a perfectly pleasant personality, a good-looking guy, but one who makes Josh Hartnett seem like Al Pacino. Wrapping themselves around Reynolds's generally unhappy, soon-to-be-divorced Will Hayes are 3 1/2 women: Emily (Elizabeth Banks, who was so wild in...more