Read More @HJ Reviews: Trailer, Photos, Overview David Bruce, Webmaster

I'll admit that I like an occasional chick flick every once in awhile, and I was interested to see more work from Ryan Reynolds' repertoire. After some fun films like Just Friends and Van Wilder and a few more serious roles coming up, I have always thought him a very likable actor.

The film begins with divorce papers being sent to Reynolds' character Will Hayes, and a very awkward conversation with his daughter Maya (Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin) about sex education—after her school decides to teach it very early on. All this leads to a father-daughter talk about who Maya's real mom is and how they first fell in love. At first, Will is not very excited about the idea, and when asked why, he responds "it's difficult." Difficult is an understatement.

After much persuasion, Maya finally gets her dad to tell her about his past in the form of a bedtime story where names have been changed and a few details omitted—and Maya is faced with the task of figuring out which of the three ladies was her real mom based on the stories. It sounds appealing and somewhat heart-warming, and the director does a pretty good job of keeping it interesting; but the morals are definitely in short supply. We'll get back to that a little later, but for now meet ladies 1, 2, and 3.

First we meet Emily (Elizabeth Banks from the Spiderman movies and TV's Scrubs), who is the woman Will has been dating for a long time. The story starts in 1992 with Will going off to work for the Democratic presidential campaign, leaving her behind but hoping to propose marriage very soon. While in New York, he first meets #2, April (Wedding Crashers' Isla Fisher), a sarcastic co-worker who makes copies for the campaign but is always up for a debate. Her boyfriend is in a band, ignores her too much, and wants to be the next Kurt Cobain. Later we met lady #3 Summer (Rachel Weisz, from The Mummy), who is a jaded grad student sleeping with her professor, but is very independent and knows what she wants in life. We see all of their lives overlap as Will's story weaves in and out of relationships with all three women. Guessing which one he ends up with is as hard for the viewer at times as it is for poor Maya.

I liked a lot about this movie. It was very well done, it's funny, it keeps you guessing, and it's definitely heartwarming at times. The only problems are the amount of drama that has to happen, the lack of moral grounding shown by the main characters, and the unfortunate subject of divorce. In all of these senses, it is very realistic in a lot of ways: explaining to the next generation how daddy met mommy appears to be getting harder and harder. Will's story includes sleeping around, unfaithfulness, smoking, and drinking.

But fortunately, it also involves forgiveness. In the funny yet touching words of Breslin's Maya, "Dad, I can't believe you drank... and smoked... But I still love you." Thankfully, no matter what our pasts include, if we truly give our lives to Christ and repent, then "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12)

As in the movie, it is too bad that we sometimes have to go through such tough times to finally figure out what is important to us; but it is nice to know we always have the love and forgiveness of our Savior Jesus Christ.