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Definitely, Maybe
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 41 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Romance
Written by: Adam Brooks
Directed by: Adam Brooks
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 14, 2008
DVD: June 24, 2008
Running Time: 105 minutes, Color
Origin: UK
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, including some frank dialogue, language and smoking
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher, Derek Luke, Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Banks, and Rachel Weisz
Will is a 30-something Manhattan dad in the midst of a divorce whose 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 to work on the Clinton campaign. For Maya, Will relives his past as an idealistic young man learning the ins and outs of big-city politics. He also recounts the history of his romantic relationships with three very different women. Will hopelessly attempts a "PG" version of his story for his daughter and changes the names so Maya has to guess which woman her father finally married. Is her mother Will's college sweetheart, the dependable girl-next-door Emily (Elizabeth Banks)? Is she his longtime best friend and confidante, the apolitical April (Isla Fisher)? Or is she the free-spirited but ambitious journalist Summer? As Maya puts together the pieces of her dad's romantic puzzle, she begins to understand that love is not so simple or easy. And as Will tells her his tale, Maya helps him to understand that it's definitely never too late to go back...maybe even to find a happy ending. (Universal Studios)
Also On Metacritic
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Empire Sam Toy
Sweet, funny, simple, entertaining -- everything a good rom-com should be. Definitely...
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Keeps you interested in its characters and isn’t afraid of complicating your sympathies a little. In these dog-day months for romantic comedy, that means a lot.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Absolutely, probably more comfortable with human romantic complication than the usual stuff released on Valentine's Day.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A sophisticated story of disappointment and accommodation.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Brooks' take on the ups and downs of modern romance and the unexpected turns it takes is smart, funny, and (above all) uncommon. It's not hard to recommend this on Valentine's Day or at any other time.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
A lot fresher and bit more sophisticated than the ordinary run of maudlin chick flicks and crude gross-out sex farces that now pass for romantic comedies.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
All three actresses are appealing, but Fisher, proving her scene-stealing turn in Wedding Crashers was no fluke, shines brightest.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Definitely, Maybe gets too coy in spots, and Brooks is a sharper writer at this point in his career than he is a director. But for a film with a half-dozen fully-formed characters that spans 15 years and works in a swell detail about a 1943 edition of "Jane Eyre" - well, it definitely works. No maybes about it.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Put simply, the film excels most at not being awful.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
In serious roles, Weisz can be stiff-backed and righteous, but here, doing comedy, she appears to be a major actress eager to reveal everything she’s been holding inside.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
A pleasingly non-formulaic romantic seriocomedy, Definitely, Maybe has charm and some depth.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
The flashback itself is a romantic dramedy that's far smarter than junk like "27 Dresses." Unfortunately, to enjoy that flashback, you have to ignore two gargantuan idiocies: No sane father would twist his daughter into knots by telling this story. It's full of booze, cigarettes, infidelity and sex with women who aren't Mom.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Maybe it's a measure of the numbing awfulness of romantic comedies in general lately, but Definitely, Maybe isn't nearly so bad as you might fear; it's actually fairly pleasant, a bit too off-color to be a family film but enjoyable just the same.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Maybe writer-director Adam Brooks has made a fluffy Woody Allen pastiche here, but it's arguably more pleasing than anything Allen himself has done lately.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
It's a decent Valentine's date-night flick, and should earn Reynolds the attention he'll need to snare stronger leading roles.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
On the plus side, Definitely, Maybe has an appealing cast, some amusing scenes and at least tries to do something different.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
It's generally enjoyable, amusing and more sophisticated than most films in this genre.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
One thing the movie does well is skewer Bill Clinton. Though Hayes works for him and nominally defends him to detractors, we see old sins rehashed: Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinsky, his impeachment.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
This is a film bound and determined to do whatever it takes to be your Valentine. If it had trusted itself more, it might even have succeeded.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Stephen Farber
The film is far from a complete washout, and this is chiefly a tribute to its immensely attractive and appealing cast. Ryan Reynolds proves to have the stuff of a true leading. man.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
Reynolds can't help looking rather shifty as he relates his story and Breslin, who was so wonderful in Little Miss Sunshine, is obliged to play a standard-issue wise child.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Abigail Breslin, the preteen Oscar nominee for "Little Miss Sunshine" and the most effortless actress of her generation, plays the precocious little girl part without overdoing the precociousness.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to guess which gal became the wife, which gal should have become the wife and which gal is there just to play with our heads. It's exactly like that old shell game – mildly diverting, pea-sized and otherwise hollow.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams
May be the first midlife crisis movie for Generation X.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
There’s a surprising – and truthful – melancholic undercurrent to Definitely, Maybe – the one commonality between the three women is the heartbreak they induce – but Brooks undermines that truthfulness with a dogmatic insistence upon romantic mythologizing. No maybes about it: The reality is far darker, and more interesting.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Michael Ferraro
As a romantic comedy, Definitely, Maybe is an explosion of sweetness and hugs that might cause your stomach to churn if you don't like your sentimentality too strong.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Isn't terrible exactly, but it's bland, and in some ways that's worse. It's a romance posing as a detective story in which the solution is obvious and not worth the fuss.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
This highly uneven comedy by writer-director Adam Brooks might be easier to take if it were less infatuated with its own cuteness.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
To sum up, Definitely, Maybe is crap with compensations.
Read Full Review >Washington Post John Anderson
Definitely an overlong exercise in the concept of kismet, and maybe it's just what you want, in lieu of chocolates.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
There's no maybe about its standing as romantic comedy -- definitely bad.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Andrew B gave it a10:
This movie is the best. Some may say this is The Godfather of romantic comedies. In my opinion, it is more like The Godfather II.
Rom Com gave it a9:
The performance of Ryan Reynolds and Isla Fisher was a thing of beauty. Reynolds is completely relatable while Fisher provided a woman all too easy to fall in love with. Rachel Weisz, Elizabeth Banks, and Abigail Breslin provided great support throughout the film. Seeing the end-credits begin to roll was a grave disappointment.
George B. gave it a6:
This movie was probably the most corny movie I have ever seen. However, apart from the kid, who as someone else pointed out, was not portrayed very well; talking about sex very graphically it actually became disturbing the cast was great. Reynolds was good, the 3 girlfriends were portrayed really well and the overall plot wasn't bad for this kind of movie. It's not the best romance comedy I've seen, but certainly not the worst.
TT BOY gave it a1:
Rachelle M., I could not agree more. HBO is included w/my apartment so I watched this stupid movie for free. It looked interesting at first, then I find out Hayes works for the Clinton campaign. I thought I could tolerate it, then they bash George W Bush when they see him on tv. One guy says, "If he's smart, he will stay out of politics and go back to baseball." I yelled at the TV, "Aside from supporting his dad, he was not in politics, DUMBASS!" I quickly changed the channel, which is something I also do if I come across MSNBC!!!!!!!
KaDi Bostick gave it an8:
Definitely better than most romantic comedies. Maybe it could've been a little bit more realistic. I mean unless his (Will) memory is photographic than I can't judge,but who can really remember everything everyone said 12 years ago. But it's still a pretty good movie.
Rod T. gave it a7:
It look some time for me to warm to this movie. I admit, watching it on my laptop, over two days, between weekend chores probably isn't the best way to watch a movie and rate it fairly, but lets give it a go. When all is said and done, I rate the movie a solid C+, but if you were to catch me midway through, I would be on the verge of turning it off. Basically it picks up after a bit and ends well. Maybe you should read a magazine for the first hour.
Lynn A. gave it a7:
The movie was great but the part about the mother just doesnt make snce.
