Definitely, Maybe (review)

Sounds like the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother".

Well, MaryAnn, I am surprised. I would never have even THOUGHT about seeing this movie! And now? Well, now it's on my must-see list. I'm so intrigued!

Oh, yay! Well I guess I'll have to see it then, won't I?

There have been two trailers (trailers! mind you), that have made me sniffle over the last few months.

One is John Cusack in "Grace is Gone," when he calls his answering machine just to hear his dead wife's voice. However, I didn't wind up seeing that movie. Yet, anyway. May Netflix it once it's out on DVD.

The other is when Ryan Reynolds says, "I'm happy," and Abigail Breslin looks him straight in the eye and says, "Trust me, Dad, you're not happy" in the trailer for "Definitely, Maybe." The tone in her voice, the look on her face, is just perfect. With every movie, Breslin becomes a scarily great actress.

Thanks for telling me I should see this movie. Between Breslin and Weiz (I've never seen Reynolds in a movie), I thought I might go (heck, I even liked "No Reservations"). Now, it's not definitely, maybe I'll go, but definitely, definitely I'll go!

Damn it, you've sold me. I wasn't planning on it, but now I'll have to see it this week.

Based on the trailer I never would have guessed this is a good movie. It's nice to be surprised once in awhile! It does kinda sound like "How I Met Your Mother", but that show is okay for a sitcom, so I can deal with a decent film using the same premise, I s'pose.

Just got back from it. Freaking fantastic! Thanks for making me want to watch it, MaryAnn! Happy Single Awareness Day! :P

Jeez MaryAnn, warn a guy to sit down before dropping a bombshell like that at the beginning of the interview. Heh, I actually couldn't agree more. After sitting through Jumper (ugh) and Spiderwick Chronicles (cute family fare, be it a tad cliche), I wasn't sure I had third movie in me today. I'm so glad I stuck it out and bought the ticket for Definitely, Maybe. It was nice to leave the theater on a high note like that.

And I totally meant "review" not "interview."

d'oh.

I was also impressed by this movie, but thought "No Reservations" a pale reflection, even as these things tend to go, of the original "Mostly Martha."

"I've never seen the show, but there's nothing sitcomish about this movie."

Terrific movie, I agree--but the above quote? Not quite true--and actually, that's a proveable statement. To prove it, though, you'll need to join me for a session of Shoop's Sitcoms 101 Seminar. Follow me, won't you? Plenty of room.

Today's topic is one of the most common and easily recognizable sitcom tropes: the Gilligan Gambit, named for Sherwood Schwartz's classic examination of society in microcosm, "Gilligan's Island." To illustrate, let me turn the class over to Gilligan and the Skipper.
SKIPPER: Gilligan, you're going to have to put on that dress.
GILLIGAN: I'm not wearing a dress. You can't make me, you can't make me.
CUT TO: Gilligan wearing a dress.

See how that works? Gilligan protests vehemently that he won't do something, and in the following scene, we find him doing it. Now, let's see how you do with a couple of scenes from "Definitely, Maybe."

*POTENTIAL SPOILERS*
1. Our protagonist, WILL, finds himself in possession of a diary--obviously very personal, and potentially quite racy. His friend encourages Will to read it immediately.
WILL: It's a diary. I'm not reading it. That would be wrong.
Now--can you guess what Will does in the next scene? If you said, "He reads the diary, Mr. Shoop," then give yourself an A. Here's one more--a little trickier, because there isn't a "CUT TO," and the denial is more implicit than explicit. The Gilligan Gambit principle, however, still applies:
2. WILL is now seated next to a smart, sexy gal who has clearly piqued his interest, even though he's planning to propose to someone else the following day.
WILL: It's nice that we can just sit here without worrying about any sort of sexual tension.
Now, applying the Gilligan Gambit, what happens between Will and the young woman about two seconds later? Hum the "Jeopardy" theme for a few moments while you think about it. Think you've got it? Well, if you said, "They start to kiss with great ardor and passion, Mr. Shoop," then you've aced the midterm. *END OF SPOILERS*

As I said earlier, I enjoyed this movie a great deal. Using sitcom rhythms doesn't necessarily make a movie inferior, or lazy, or bad in any way. It's all in how and why they're used. For homework: Quinn Cummings in "The Goodbye Girl," Jodie Sweetin from "Full House," and Abigail Breslin ("Definitely, Maybe," et al.): compare and contrast. See you next time.

Happy to finally find someone that gives this movie its due.
Like Danielle, I didn't want to see it because
of the trailer. But I finally ran out of movies
to see and let the 70% thumbs up reviews
persuade me to invest two hours.
Abigail Breslin (who just annoyed me
in that horrible Little Miss Sunshine)
now makes me take note of her.
I am reminded of the exact moment I made
a point of checking out the name of
the little actress in Alice Doesn't Live
Here Anymore. It was when she uttered
the line "Weird.....*weird*".
In the closing credits I noted that
her name was Jody Foster.
Anyway, Reynolds (whom I can't remember seeing before) was a perfect straight man
for Breslin, Weisz and Isla Fisher.

We finally saw it today, and while we generally enjoyed it, it failed my "If you can't get the simple things right" test...

Here's my beef, and it's about what happens when you work on political campaigns. If you are sent from one state to another and put up in a hotel for weeks, you are not going to be "toilet paper boy." I can't imagine there being a $12 an hour copier-runner in a campaign now, much less in 1992. Those are both the sort of jobs the high school, college kids and interns get, who are there working for free. I know because I've had those kids of jobs on campaigns.

And, campaigners not wearing their candidate's button almost constantly on their lapels? Let's be real!

Now, some of the campaign stuff was spot on - the long hours, the chaos, the big open office, the ra-ra nature of the enterprise. And, certainly, later on, another campaign collapsing very rapidly amid bitterness and recriminations.

I wish the leading male had been as charismatic as the four leading females!

Just coming back to read this review on a whim, as I do sometimes for movies I love. And I just have to say that comparing this movie to How I Met Your Mother is not an insult. It's a sitcom, I suppose, but it's one designed for sitting down and watching ten episodes in a row. I'm not sure it's actually possible to dislike it.