Definitely Maybe

I have long contended that the way you tell a story can be as important as the story itself. One of my favorite examples is Forget Paris, where we follow the story of a couple’s relationship as it is told by a succession of his friends to a woman who doesn’t know them. If you had told it in a linear fashion, it would have been just your standard boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl story. A nice story, but routine. Here we have a man telling his young daughter (the fabulous Abigail Breslin) of his romances with three women, one of whom is her mother. He makes it into a mystery. It’s a lot of fun, because all three women are nice, and different, and you find yourself rooting for one or the other. Many plot complications develop, and I had a great time trying to figure it all out. A good romantic comedy.