Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin, Isla Fisher, Rachel Weisz
Director: Adam Brooks
Release Date: February 14, 2008
Running time: 105 min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributors: Focus Features

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Review by Jeremy Welsch

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We all make choices in life, every day. Some are small and have little or no impact on the grand scheme of things, and some shake us to our foundations, altering the very balance of power in our lives, and completely changing the game. For some reason or other, a few months back I embarked on a quest to find the first good romantic comedy of the season. I didn’t mean to, but after seeing so many bad ones, I imagined there just had to be one out there that didn’t make me want to reject my calling. Regrettably, my stubborn nature took over.

Well, it happened. Dear God, it finally happened. But my personal victory notwithstanding, the movie isn’t completely without flaw.

The almost-divorced Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) goes to tuck his annoyingly inquisitive daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) into bed one night and she starts in on him, wanting to hear the story of how he fell in love with her mother. Kinda like that TV show with the clever title – what was the name of it again? – oh yeah, How I Met Your Mother. He begins to tell the story, through flashbacks, of the three loves in his past.

I remember reading an article somewhere that listed all these different types of women and it also said something about how men should try to date as many different types of these women as they can before they decide on “the one”. Seems like an obvious and skanky argument (wait, sorry – shaky. Never mind, skanky works) but Will must have read the same article because the three women he talks about are scattered across the board.

There’s old reliable Emily (Elizabeth Banks), his college sweetie. The ambitious journalist, Summer (Rachel Weisz) with a penchant for sleeping with old men and young women. And April (Isla Fisher), the free spirited arty chick for whom he does/doesn’t/does/doesn’t have feelings. It's a little bit like A Lot Like Love. The movie goes into his time juggling these three women at various points in his life leading up to the present. Now that's all well and good, but it’s like driving west across Colorado toward Denver: you see the end about an hour before you get there. And it does take a little longer to tell the story than it needs too. What does work, however, is the fact that none of the women are vilified. No one is painted as an easy scapegoat for us to hate and root against. For one reason or another things just don’t work out with any one of them at any given time. This happens in life and that it happens here makes this pill easier to swallow.

I don’t know what it is about movies, especially this type, that they have to use kids as the voice of reason. This one is right out of the book where the kid seems to know more about what’s going on than the adults and finds cute ways to tell them what is what in such a way that they feel stupid for not ever understanding. Sleepless in Seattle, anyone? Like I said, it isn’t groundbreaking cinema, but it serves its purpose and the getting there wasn't terrible.

This movie’s likability benefits greatly by comparison with the paltry romantic comedies released so far this year. Take it for what it’s worth but I’d call it a win. By default, sure, but a win either way. And at this point I’ll take what I can get.

And there’s the rub.

Film Rating: ** 1/2 out of ****

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