Day 5: Definitely Maybe

Day 5: Definitely Maybe

Hrmm. Definitely Maybe… Maybe I would like this one but I just can’t seem to sit all the way through it. I first heard about this movie back when I had just moved to NYC and we had free premium cable channels and I had no job. So I watched HBO and Showtime everyday. And this movie was inevitably on at some point at least twice a week. I never caught the beginning and I often didn’t stay through the end. It just didn’t have that great cheesy line or gigantic romantic gesture to make me seek it out, sit down and watch all the way through.

Now Day 5 has finally been watched in its entirety two days off of my 31 day schedule and here is why: Wednesday night, after my dear friend Connie flew in, we thought we’d see what door number 5 held for us and we sat down to watch it but ended up talking, laughing and having a lot more fun than this film can provide so we turned it off and then of course there was New Years Eve (which at work that day, I forgot to bring the movie in and was berated by my coworkers who are now all eagerly waiting the next day’s film) and New Years Day to keep me even more entertained! What a wonderful way to ring in the new year, great friends, lots of laughter and tons of alcohol! So I got back into my project today and sat down to watch this film all the way through for the first time. And though it has great actors in it, all ones I really love in other films… it still lacks something. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s telling this story to his daughter and I’m not sure it is very appropriate especially when she asks what threesomes are. Maybe it’s the fact that there really are 3 love interests and all are hot and worthy but none of them feel like the angels are singing in the background “This is the ONE”. Maybe it’s the fact that there are some very real heavy moments that never really get resolved such as the daughter wanting to hear all this in the first place to try and keep her parents together because she can’t understand why they are getting a divorce. Ultimately unsatisfied but really looking forward to tomorrow’s film here is how Definitely Maybe checks off on my list:

• Giddy: Nope, no giddy moments. They almost have me when he’s practicing his proposal and he says “You’re the first person I want to see when I wake up in the morning and the last one I want to see when I go to bed at night” until I realize those lines are stolen from When Harry Met Sally. I don’t require too much originality in a RC but I did feel ripped off.
• Lie: I don’t think there is too much lying going on in this movie. Names changed… no lies. Boo!
• Big Emotional Outburst: You know the scene in a typical RC where they suddenly realize all they want and start running towards their goal at the end of the movie… that was there but it really didn’t feel like it.
• Dance Sequence: None. Boo on that too!
• Wedding: NONE!!! This is essential folks! You can not have a Romantic Comedy with out SOMEONE in a wedding dress!
• Rewatchable: Well, I’ve had it on in the background through lots times in my life here in NYC so… I guess but not really something I’d actively put in the dvd.
• Love: There are all kinds in this film. Again – best friend kind wins out but all three loves lacked a passion. He had more passion for Clinton than he did for any of the women he dated.
• Fantasy: 2 major ones: 1. (and my friend Connie is insisting I point this one out) No man would search all over as much as he does for this book of Jane Eyre that she lost and also actually find it 2. NYC apartment sizes. Yet again, we have a film that is saying that you can have almost no job, or work in a bookstore and still have an apartment that is HUGE! Okay this is one fantasy that might have to stop for the good of all people who move to NYC with hopes and dreams (like me). Because these apartments DO NOT EXIST! Trust me! I’ve been working for a real estate company for a few months now and I’m so sick of people complaining about the size vs. the price. It is NYC folks. This is the way it is. There are just too many people here and not enough room for them all so they can have really outrageous prices on closets. It’s the way of the world. And why I live in Jersey.
• Journey of the Main Character: So Ryan Renolds goes from wanting to be President to working for an ad agency. And he goes from loving his college sweetheart to loving other women and then back to loving her and then divorcing her and realizing he has always been in love with this other girl. Yes I guess that can all count as a journey of the main character but I really didn’t see the struggle. Maybe I was distracted. This movie couldn’t hold my attention. I don’t know why.
• Body Count: And FINALLY on Day 5 WE HAVE A WINNER! Kevin Kline’s great alcoholic character bites it. It is no Vizzini keeling over after laughing about how the 2 things you should never do are start a land war in Asia or make a bet with a Sicilian when death is on the line… but its my first death in 5 movies so I’m a little happy here.
• Music Montages: No! None! Nada! Zip! Zilch! Again- that’s what this movie is missing! Also, maybe I’m too old – but the music in this film they play it like we are supposed to have a nostalgic “ah remember when” moment and I’m thinking- well I have that song on my ipod- that’s practically NEW! It’s not like the 80’s music in 2 of the best Adam Sandler films – The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates. Now those movies cause major music nostalgia.
• Strong Female: I guess all 3 of the women are semi strong. They all follow their own dreams first. They are all smart. I don’t know why I’m not shaking my feminist pom pom’s but for some reason I’m not. Maybe it’s because the movie was just so so for me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I’m starting it off right with all this romance to watch! I’m hoping I’ll end it by being in a few of these films myself! May we all get our dreams to come to true this year!