The advertising for Definitely, Maybe proclaims “From the makers of Notting Hill and Love Actually,” which is more than a little misleading. I took that to mean that this was a new movie by Richard Curtis, the veteran British writer of sitcoms and romantic comedies, including those two hits. What the blurb instead means is that this effort is from the production company Working Title films, in which case it may as well have said “From the makers of United 93 and Barton Fink.” But such is the advertising business.

This is not to say that fans of Notting Hill and Love Actually, not to mention Four Weddings and a Funeral or Bridget Jones’s Diary, might not still enjoy Definitely, Maybe, which despite not being British or even set in England is after all a romantic comedy concerning characters who by the standards of the day may modestly be referred to as “adult.” God knows it’s an audience that is not otherwise being terribly well served with product this Valentine’s Day weekend. (It’s either this or Fool’s Gold, and that’s no choice at all.) What I will say is that you’re not likely to enjoy it as much as those films.

Definitely, Maybe relates a decade in the romantic life of Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds), as narrated to his 11-year-old daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin, rather less charming than in Little Miss Sunshine). I’ll let you in on something that wasn’t at all clear to me until the end of this film: The story that Will tells involves three women, one of whom is Maya’s mother. Only he gives them all fictitious names. I can’t tell you how confused I was every time Maya broke into the story demanding to know which one was her mother.

The history opens with Will moving from Madison to Manhattan to work for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Clinton’s foibles through the years provide a metaphoric counterpoint for Will’s growing disillusionment with romance, a dramatic tactic that I wouldn’t have taken for a movie to be released at precisely this point in time, but them’s the breaks in an art form where it can be years from pen to projection booth. As for the three women who weave in and out (and in and out and…) of Will’s life, I will say nothing other than that they are played by Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Banks and Rachel Weisz. You may root for your favorite: As this approached what in a more carefully structured film might have been called the third act, I began to wonder if perhaps this might be using the same gimmick as the 1985 comedy Clue, which you may recall was released with three different endings. It seems to me that Definitely, Maybe, as befits its indecisive title, could easily have ended up with Maya’s mother being any one of the three. If there is enough extra footage and the producers decide this is a viable option for the DVD, they can send me a check care of this newspaper.