Is this one of the sweetest films of the last 12 months? Definitely, maybe.

Is Ryan Reynolds his entertaining and likeable self again? Definitely, maybe.

Is the fact that this rather illogical piece works absolutely staggering? Definitely, maybe.

Like Perkins’ Paste, Adam Brooks’ new romantic-comedy won’t stick for long – but it holds a lot longer than you would imagine.

Ryan Reynolds (back in comedy mode after tackling more serious flicks like John August’s little-seen The Nines and Joe Carnahan’s frenzied actioner Smokin’ Aces) plays Will Hayes, a young father on the verge of divorce whose 10-year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin of Little Miss Sunshine) wants to know why her parents are splitting up.

Via a series of flashbacks to the ’90s, Hayes’ tells how he met young Maya’s mother – but he changes the names of all (but one) of the different women he’s been with so that both the audience and daughter can guess who the mother was. Is it feisty reporter Summer (Rachel Weisz)? Maybe it’s April (Isla Fisher), one of his co-workers in the Clinton campaign office? Or perhaps it’s college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks)?

What makes Definitely, Maybe play well is that it’s seemingly been written by someone who has lived, loved and come to the realisation that, in real life, relationships aren’t as straightforward and uncomplicated as most rom-coms make them out to be. Brooks’ script starts to travel down what seems an obvious route before it takes a sharp turn down a road far less travelled – a believable one. And though you might find parts of the twisty tale hard to swallow, the pragmatic punch line serves as a tall glass water to help the rest go down.

Featuring terrific performances by Ryan Reynolds (he’s playing above his age here – in real life he would have still been in school in 1992) and Australia’s Isla Fisher (this girl is headed for the top!), Definitely Maybe takes what should be a forgettable piece of fluff and grounds itself in some sort of reality. Yes, it’s so sweet and sickly at times that you’re never a doubt that you’re watching a movie, but there’s a couple of messages (how life can take some unexpected turns and how people do get married for all the wrong reasons but don’t live to regret it) that you don’t normally find in a film like this. As a consequence, it will likely appeal to a much larger audience than it should.

Good stuff all round.