Toronto’s own Adam Brooks (ALMOST YOU) foray into romantic comedy fare takes a welcome change with a whodunit element added in.  Recently divorced Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) is quizzed by his 11-year old daughter, Maya (Abigail Breslin from LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) who her real mother is.  As the film progresses, Will relates the story of his three loves (changing their names) to Maya as the audience witnesses Will romance Emily (Elizabeth Banks), April (Isla Fisher) and Summer (Rachel Weisz).

For all the novel ideas Brooks have come up with for the romantic comedy genre, none of them are worked to effective use.  It does not take a genius to guess how the clichéd film will end and which lady Will ends up with, once the three ladies are introduced.  Guessing the identity of Maya’s real mother makes no sense at all – since she is shown having spent the most time with her real mother.  Obviously, the other two women would not want to waste any time with someone else’s daughter.  The audience is also led to believe that all this excitement is initiated from May’s sex education in school.  But Brooks manipulates the audience with his distractions well.  The choice in the script of Will’s occupation as a young politician working for the Clinton campaign is an odd one.  It does not affect the story much except for Will’s move to NYC.  A nice segment has Brooks doing a ‘patch’ job with Will greeting Clinton doing a morning jog among his bodyguards.  Largely wasted is the role of Will’s best friend, Russell (Derek Luke).

With three love stories in one, a clichéd Hollywood happy ending and unfunny comedy set-ups, DEFINITELY, MAYBE is quite the bore.  Reynolds waltzes through the film like a zombie guided by his all-intelligent smart-a** daughter while the three loves of his life move in and out of Will’s life as if directed by a traffic cop.  DEFINITLY, MAYBE, written and directed by a guy eventually emerges as a slightly varied chick flick with a guy in the main role.