ShareThisWriter/director Adam Brooks is so adept at recycling, he deserves an award from Greenpeace. For starters, the title of his romantic comedy "Definitely, Maybe" is the same as the 1994 Oasis CD (minus the comma). In the film, an ad exec, Will (Ryan Reynolds), spills about his youthful love life to his 11-year-old daughter, who wonders how her parents met because they're divorcing.The concept is close to a wholesale ripoff of the TV series "How I Met Your Mother," with a man narrating stories of his whirlwind romances to his child, keeping the characters' true identities a mystery.What's more, all of Will's relationships resemble the romance in "When Harry Met Sally. . . ," with happenstance snuffing out love just as it's flowering and lovers separating for years before having fluke reunions.Even though you've already seen everything the movie has to throw at you, it's still got an effective hook -- Reynolds' dart-eyed, scoundrelish delivery. He could make a reading of the Bible bubble with subversive charm.Equal to Reynolds' impressive turn are the actresses who play the three women who flutter in and out of his life. First there's Elizabeth Banks as Emily, his college sweetheart whom he leaves in Wisconsin to work on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign in New York. In the Big Apple he meets Emily's conniving old roommate, Summer (Rachel Weisz), as well as the flighty April (Isla Fisher), with whom things come close to clicking before some mishap screws everything up.Brooks keeps Reynolds' carousel of loves circulating so quickly, it's tough to get a fix on whom he'll end up with. For such a derivative concept, it's impressive how difficult it is to predict the plot twists. But really, most of the appeal is in watching Reynolds do his thing. Dating to his near-forgotten prime-time TV debut in "Two Guys and a Girl" (1998-2001) on through superb showings in "Van Wilder," "Waiting" and "Just Friends," Reynolds has consistently ranked among the top unsung comedic actors of his era. It's probably dramatic stinkers such as "Blade: Trinity" and "The Amityville Horror" that have held him back from the Steve Carell/Will Ferrell echelon. Reynolds always shines in comedies.But will you be able to put aside the annoyance of the derivative plot and appreciate the dialogue and performances for what they are? Well, that's a definite maybe.3 stars out of 4Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, including some frank dialogue, language and smoking.Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Kevin Kline.Writer/director: Adam Brooks.Family call: OK for teens and up.Running time: 110 minutes. (Phil Villarreal is the author of the novel "Stormin' Mormon" (Publish America, $19.95) due out in March and available on Amazon.com. Contact him at pvillarreal(at)azstarnet.com)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
'Definitely, Maybe' is recycled, but it works
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