“Definitely, Maybe” is a smart, funny, romantic comedy now playing at the Pavilion. Park Sloper Florian Ballhaus shot the movie which was written and directed by Adam Brooks.
Even A.O. Scott, the New York Times film critic and Leffert’s Gardens resident enjoyed this romantic tale with Abigail Breslin of “Little Miss Sunshine” fame.
“Definitely, Maybe,” a nimble and winning little romance written and directed by Adam Brooks, begins with one of those awkward Important Talks that parents are sometimes required to have with their children. In this case Maya Hayes (Abigail Breslin) needs some debriefing after a sex education class at her Manhattan elementary school. She’s acquired some technical vocabulary but not a lot of context, and so it falls to her dad, Will (Ryan Reynolds), to do the necessary explain.”
When Maya, who’s parents are divorced, asks her dad to tell her how he met her mother, he decides to tell the complicated story of his complicated love life like a mystery—changing the names of all the women involved. The film becomes a guessing game/mystery a “Who’s my mother?” challenge for Maya.
Part of the fun of the film is that much of it takes place during the 1990’s and it evokes that Clintonian time before and after cell phones with an expert hand. Again, A.O. Scott from his review:
Ah, the ’90s. Among the many charms of “Definitely, Maybe” is the way it evokes the recent past without drowning in fussy period detail. Will, ambitious and idealistic, has come east from Madison, Wis. (leaving Emily behind), to plunge into the world of electoral politics; and while this movie is hardly an incisive political satire, it does capture some of the flavor of the times and, more generally, the headiness of youthful commitment to a cause
Did you ever think you’d be nostalgic for the 1990’s of the “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” and the dot com boom?
Well, the film manages to paint it in interesting (primary) colors and it makes for a fun backdrop for this charming, well-acted and well-written story.
More Brooklyn fun: There’s a scene with Kevin Kline as a funny and pompous intellectual author and drunk doing a book reading at The Montauk Club. The second floor ballroom looks gorgeous all decked out like a real bar.
A wonderful new actress (to me) Isla Fisher, plays one of Will’s numerous loves, who lives in a funky Greenpoint building with a great view of the Empire State Building.
The film is wonderfully shot by the masterful Florian Balhaus, who also shot Flight Plan, The Devil Wears Prada and Secret Lives of Dentists. Check out Florian’s IMDB page to see all the films he has worked on in his 20+ years in the business.
Watch for his signature 360 shot using a steady-cam like dolly in the Clinton headquarters scenes.