Any time a movie makes me feel something, chances are I will think it is good.  That statement needs clarification.  There are times when I see something that fills me with loathing, wondering about every decision that went into a film’s making.  Others seem silly, laughed at and dismissed just as easily.  Those are perhaps the saddest because it trivializes the hard work of those behind the camera and the process of finishing them.  More specifically, the ones I consider best are those that touch my heart, the place where God resides within me.  A lot of these are romantic comedies, but the other half are usually dramas that speak to the serious moments in life.  Today’s film, Definitely, Maybe (2008), straddles both these personal categories, hitting home in a variety of ways that involves information I only share with a select few, and God, of course.  By reading this review, perhaps you will feel some of the same things I do.

As Definitely, Maybe begins, the only thing that William “Will” Matthew Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) feels is a sense of bitter finality.  This is because he has just received divorce papers, and they are delivered at an advertising job he does not love.  Yet, this particular day is one of the bright spots of his week because it is one of the two he gets to pick up his daughter, Maya Hayes (Abigail Breslin), from school.  There is a bit of an uproar with the students because, despite their youth, their teachers have introduced sex education.  A bewildered Will thinks that Maya’s request that they talk as they walk away has to do with this uncomfortable subject for a nine-year-old, but instead she wants to know about how him and her mom met.  Naturally, she has questions, hoping that the answers might help her understand the reason for her parents’ split.  He initially resists the conversation, but she persists all the way until bed time until he finally relents.  Most of the rest of this will be flashback, but he is changing all the names.  She likes this arrangement, seeing it as a mystery for her to solve.  He starts with his graduation from the University of Wisconsin in 1992.  He has been offered the opportunity to work on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign in New York City.  He is excited to go, but his girlfriend, Emily Jones (Elizabeth Banks), is worried about how it will affect their relationship.  With promises of being back in Madison in a month once he has done his bit, and taking with him a package to be delivered to Emily’s friend, Summer Hartley (Rachel Weisz), that lives there, Will gets to the Big Apple and sets to work.  Instead of writing speeches as he had hoped, he is stuck fetching coffee and completing copy orders.  The latter of these tasks brings him into contact with the free-spirited April Hoffman (Isla Fisher).  He is shocked by her lack of political affiliation, but they are fast friends all the same.  As for the mysterious item, because his attempts to reach Summer had yet to succeed, he takes a peek at the contents.  It turns out to be a diary wherein Summer describes being intimate with Emily, the woman he hopes to marry.  This makes Will more determined to meet Summer, and when he finally does, he also encounters her boyfriend, politics scholar Professor Hampton Roth (Kevin Kline).  While she is a relationship with Professor Roth, she is intrigued by Will, kissing the young man as he leaves.  Meanwhile, while hanging out with April, he reveals that he plans on proposing to Emily when she comes to visit.  When this happens, despite having a smooch with April too, Will remains determined to pop the question. Unfortunately, this is when Emily reveals she had slept with his college roommate, putting an end to their future.  Not long thereafter, Will begins a career as a political consultant and starts dating Summer.  They are driven in their work, Summer being a journalist.  It appears a perfect match until April returns from traveling, being drawn back to New York by Will.  She comes back just as Will is buying an engagement ring for Summer, which is off-putting for April.  Further, at Professor Roth’s advice, Summer writes an article about the candidate Will is working for that digs deeper into the politician’s past, and not in a good way.  It is the end of Will’s time in politics and his relationship with Summer.  There is a long period of depression for him until April knocks on his door, inviting him out for a birthday party she has arranged for him.  Unfortunately, he is still sad about his circumstances, and says some unkind words to her.  His luck appears to change when he spots a copy of Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë, one she has been searching for because it contains an inscription from her late father.  When he goes to deliver it, though, he encounters Kevin (Marc Bonan), her current boyfriend, and leaves without giving her the present.  As he is collecting his thoughts at a nearby café, Summer happens by and invites her to a party she is throwing, partially to celebrate the fact that she is pregnant.  Maya is not happy about this prospect, not thinking highly of the writer, because she suspects Summer is her mother.  However, at said soiree, Summer points Will to Emily, who has been living in New York City for years.  By this point in the story, it is the next day and Maya and Will are waiting for her mother in the park.  It turns out to be Emily, whose real name is Sarah.  Later that day, Will tracks down April and finally gives her the book.  She is understandably upset by the fact that he had waited so long to present it to her and asks him to leave.  The person who saves the day is Maya, who insists that they go to April’s apartment.  She overhears on the intercom father and daughter discussing the tale he had been telling, and her desire to hear it gets her to invite them into her place.

Raise your hand if you thought it would be April at the end of Definitely, Maybe.  I can make that gesture because I had seen it before this recent viewing.  What is special about this moment is Maya.  She has that childlike faith that Jesus alludes to in Matthew 18:3, the kind that makes us inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven.  She simply wants for her dad’s happiness.  Of course she would prefer for her parents to be together, but, sadly, that is not possible.  Because she loves her dad, she seeks what is best for him, which is what the Greeks would call agape.  There is a lot this movie has to say about the topic of love and relationships that aligns with Christian teaching, even if it involves some non-traditional outcomes.  In this regard, April has some interesting contributions.  In talking about relationships, she posits that it is not so much who the person is, but the when.  When the time is right, you will be with the correct person.  This thought has the feel of cliché, but that does not make it wrong.  After all, God’s will corresponds with the proper season for everything.  One of awesome aspects of believing in Him is when you recognize the convergence of our hopes with His design at the exact moment something is meant to take place.  For example, a few weeks ago while walking and listening to Father Mike Schmitz’s Catechism in a Year podcast, he inserted a common Christian metaphor about us believers being clay molded in God’s hands.  As I heard this line, I looked up at noticed that I was passing an artist’s workshop called Clay Works.  In doing so, I felt His presence with me, reminding me of the truth of the words I was hearing.  This can also be put down to being in the right place at the right time, and God does work in this manner.  However, with Him every place and time is right as He is always reaching out to us.  Still, for big things like the vocation of marriage, the movie is correct that when the moment is right, the person will present themselves.

What is not right about Definitely, Maybe is having a young girl learn so much about sexual intimacy at her tender age.  It is inappropriate, but if you can get through the first fifteen minutes, and some occasional reminders, the rest is tame.  It is a good movie for us searchers out there, to know that one day what we pray for will happen.