Defiantly, Maybe (2008)

Romantic comedy uses forced plot device of newly divorced father (Ryan Reynolds) telling 11 year old daughter (Abigial Brelsin) the story of how he meet her mother; only to spice it up he adds the stories of two other romances he had and challenges his progeny to guess from which she came. This movie wants to be simultaneously cutsie and a little risky, which proved an awkward balance and sets the film up as a mixed bag. The Elizabeth Banks character didn’t work for me, and the Racheal Wiez character never became as developed as I would have liked. Isla Fisher’s performance however was wonderful and you really fall in love with the girl (Major Spoiler: not Breslin’s mother, but the true love of Reynolds life). In fact as I read another reviewer say this movie really should have been about Fisher and Reynolds falling in love, there was some chemistry and freshness there, in fact enough to put me over the hump and like this movie. Also the contrived plot device does pay off emotionally some what at the end. I don’t buy Reynolds thinking ’Everyday People’ a perfect song. The first of the 90’s nostalgia movies. 3 out of 5.