Staff Picks Blog
Last Friday I grabbed three dvds off the shelves I’d never seen before to watch over the weekend.
The first was so bad I’m not even going to name it.
The the second was really really good. So good that I haven’t even gotten to the third one yet.
definitely, maybe staring Ryan Reynolds and Abigail Breslin is four love stories in one. At its simplest, it is a look at the open and honest relationship between a 30-something dad and his 10 year old daughter. The dad Will is in the process of what appears to be a pretty decent divorce, while his 10 year old daugher Maya is just learning about sex in school.
All the questions about sex begin to torment Will, and so when Maya suddenly wants to know how he fell in love with her mom he jumps at the chance to change the topic – thinking true love would be easier to explain. Only Maya doesn’t buy it.. she wants the real story. What really happened between he and her mom, and how could it have been true love if they are now divorced? Off the cuff Will offers to tell tell her about the three loves in his life, but he’s going to change all of the names and even some of the facts and she’s going to have to figure out which one is her mom. Maya jumps at the challenge.
And back in time we go to meet the four women Will has loved: the college sweetheart in Wisconsin who he leaves behind when he follows his dream to New York City; a fish-out-of-water girl he befriends when he begins work on the Clinton campaign in NYC; or the bohemian free thinking journalist bound for glory? And who’s the fourth person so important in Will’s life? That’s for Maya to figure out.
I really enjoyed this movie. In fact, I watched it twice over the weekend, and the second time through I watched a bunch of the extras too and discovered that definitely, maybe was written and directed by Adam Brooks – the writer of one of my other favorite movies "French Kiss."
While definitely different, the two movies have a lot in common – and not that they’re just chick flicks. They’re good love stories, with happy endings. And sometimes a happy ending was just what I need from a movie.
(oh, and another thing. This movie may just be Ryan Reynolds shot at growing up. Gone are the days of kegger college comedies. This man can really act, and this movie proves it!)
