Stating the obvious, the United States is clearly unhappy with the
state of its union. An unpopular war of seemingly ill-conceived choice
grinds on, deflecting resources and attention away from that other war
we started, in Afghanistan, to try to ferret out the people actually
responsible for the events of September 11. Privacy concerns, as well
as lingering questions of endorsed torture and basic governmental
competence take turns owning the headlines alongside economic and
environmental anxiety, while the race for the White House, and who will
replace President George W. Bush, seemingly intensifies with every
passing day.
America is paying attention again, and talking. We’re poised on the
precipice of a historic election, no matter the eventual course
selected. So perhaps it’s not ultimately quite as surprising as it is
at first blush that a seemingly throwaway February romantic comedy like Definitely, Maybe could potentially end up as a talking point on MSNBC.
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher and Rachel Weisz (along with an unbilled Kevin Kline), the movie tells the story of a young father who shares with his daughter (Abigail Breslin) the story of the three great romances of his life, leaving her to guess which one is her mother. Reynolds is Will Hayes, a Manhattan advertising executive go-getter who’s on the eve of his divorce finally becoming official. To satiate his daughter Maya’s inquisitive mind, he finds himself recounting his more idealistic youth as a campaign scrub during then-candidate Bill Clinton’s campaign for the presidency. Temporarily leaving behind his college sweetheart Emily (Banks), it’s then that Will meets copy girl April (Fisher), a spunky and apolitical Nirvana fan who’s treading water, occupationally speaking. He also meets Summer (Weisz), a brilliant writer who challenges his mind, as well as his preconceptions. Each woman intrigues and completes Will in some way, and as Will tells Maya the story, she flashes back and forth on who she believes is her mother… and who might eventually be right for her dad.
It doesn’t hurt that Definitely, Maybe has the extremely personable Reynolds as its anchor, and the film also makes the most of Fisher’s charms. It’s easily her best performance since Wedding Crashers. Anyone who’s a big city singleton or knows some of the same gets these characters pretty quickly; they’re witty and energetic, wry and intelligent. In an era when most studio scripts settle for merely “good enough,” this one, from writer-director Adam Brooks (who also penned Practical Magic, Wimbledon and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason) has an extra bit of shine and polish.
Mostly, though, the rich background detail in Definitely, Maybe — conspicuously absent in its marketing — is a large part of what most heartily recommends the movie. It’s not just empty or incidental set dressing; as the film charts Will’s personal struggles with love, fidelity, duty and connection, it parallels his professional life in politics, as well as some of the travails of then-President Clinton. After the bloom of his relationship with Emily fades, Will goes on to work on the gubernatorial campaign of a tough-on-crime Democrat felled by favor-brokering. Later, when the Monica Lewinsky affair unfolds during Clinton’s second term, Will finds himself alone, downhearted and disillusioned. While his diehard Democratic friends and colleagues steadfastly defend Clinton (“I’d vote for him again if I could,” says one), Will recognizes the disappointment of what might have been. After witnessing Clinton’s famous deposition, and parsing of the English language (“It depends on what your definition of the word ‘is’ is…”), a disgusted Will spits to his friends, “What happens if next time they give him a hard word — like truth?”
Definitely, Maybe isn’t an overtly political film by any stretch of the imagination or generous definition. It’s a well-shaded romantic comedy with a bit of heartstring tugging built in, courtesy of the flashback conceit and character of Maya. Still, in an election cycle when the question of political dynasty and the Bush-Clinton double-helix that the national political scene has been in the grip of for the past two-plus decades (a Bush or Clinton on one of the national tickets every presidential election since 1980) has been thus far deftly suppressed by the campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton, the film cuts to the heart of this potential for dysfunction in a rather breathtaking way. The specifics of writer-director Brooks’ political leanings (the film gets in a shot against the current President Bush, too, showing footage of him awkwardly campaigning for his father in 1992), or those of the characters, is essentially irrelevant, because the movie isn’t advocating anything specific. By trading in metaphor and parallel structure, though, Definitely, Maybe makes a compelling allegorical statement about just how stuck in a rut we collectively feel our nation is; it’s ingrained in even the most fleeting entertainment, and that’s everything. For the full original review, from FilmStew, click here.