Definitely, Maybe

Love stories are like pop songs. They deal with our most intrinsic interest in life, but they also gloss over reality for ideal and conveniance. People always make too much importance of them. The fact they can relate to the basic feelings isn't that important. The words "I love you" are meaningful to everyone, but replicating those emotions in sugar coated works of pop entertainment always has great limitations.

The difference with Definitely, Maybe is that the story does try to complicate an age old formula. The father tells his daughter the story of how he fell in love with his mother. He tries to convince her it is complicated but she argues that it isn't. And so the film begins by relaying over his history with three different women and how chance events and new moments moved him from one girl to the next or from one great moment to a low one. Definitely, Maybe has a few ideas correct in that it cannot leave definite impressions of each woman or moment. Some characters just do drift away and ideas of his old self also just fade.

The few good parts of the film are shading around with what is still a standard vehicle movie. Ryan Reynolds is judged as an actor by his likability instead of his depth and the final hurrah with the great romance has the characteristics of a full fledged dream come true. It's relatable to no one but people who live vicariously through romance novels, stories and songs. I'd be lying if I didn't say the film tugged at a few of my emotions, but any sad situation can do that. The story of feelings in movies and how we relate to them has more to do with personal experience and intellectual thought. All of our senses have to be challenged. Definitely, Maybe just challenges a few and white washes a lot more. It's still just a holiday movie in the end.