Mya wanted to know who her mom was, yet at the ending Will goes: "You mean that woman walking up to us right now?"
She knew the whole time?
Call me slow, I don't care. I just don't understand that part. She kept asking about and eliminating the possibilities of who her mother was, so through the whole movie, I was just thinking that she'd NEVER met her mother, and really wanted to know who she was.
Mya wanted to know which of the three major girlfriends her father had was her mother (from a historical perspective).
She obviously knew her mother from the present time.
Yeah^^
She wanted to know how they met.
Yeah, but isn't it a little strange that Maya doesn't already know a lot of the details about her mom in Will's story, like the fact that they were highschool sweethearts, or that she wasn't a journalist or worked for Amnesty or collected Jane Eyres? I guess it's possible, but it seems kinda far-fetched. Or maybe not, I don't remember how much I knew about my parents at that age :)
shareThe major theme in this film is actually relationships and divorce. It explores a single family members relationship history (dads) from his perspective pertaining to the outcome of his daughters existence.
The film is trying (and succeeds) in showing us how certain events in a timeline dictate consequences of matters relating to the heart. That a man is capable of loving many woman at different times during his life (and vice versa).
A key sentence i picked up was was when Dad and April (isla fisher) were grabbing a table in restaurant and she's mumbling something about "there's no such thing as 'the one' but rather 'when' the time is right for someone to commit to a relationship (with intentions of long term success/having kids etc" (something along those lines).
Was April his 'true love'?
I think this film attempts to try and explore concepts like this. Did Dad (Ryan Reynolds) not Love Emily (the mum) (or Summers) as much as April (even though he has a child with Emily)?
But the theme without a doubt is 'breakups' (but not necessarily that they are bad, but rather 'natural' and occurring). 46% of marriages end in divorce. His relationship with Emily, April and Summers all ended (positively mind you, although he's resuming a relationship with April again but its unclear as to whether it will succeed or not).
Personally i think the film would have been better (8/10) if the film ended with the scene at the zoo with him saying to his daughter that SHE was the happy ending. This is far more realistic ending imho than a babe such as isla fisher - still after all these years - without an Adonis husband and several stunning kidlets that followed!
But no, Hollywood had to get their schwaltzy rubbishy cheesy ending of the daughter fixing her dad with his 'tru love' thereby changing the tone (and message) of the film entirely. Watch it again, imagine the ending of the film at the zoo where he says his daughter was the happy ending. Stop film, good movie and powerful message. Press play, watch film turn into hollywood dribble.
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The point was that Maya wanted her dad to revisit how he met and fell in love with her mom. The plan is that after going through the story, she hoped he'd realize that he still loved her and would cancel the divorce (as he only signed the papers after the story).
But Maya realized mid way through the story that Will actually loved April the whole time instead.