A man tells a story to his daughter about how he met her mother, changing the names of the women in his life so that his daughter is left trying to solve which is her mom. Will Hayes' life just got a little more difficult. Not only is he going through a divorce, but his daughter, Maya, just asked him to tell her the story of how he ended up with her mother in the first place. He reluctantly agrees, but he tells her he'll be changing some of the names of the women and certain details of events. In the 1990s, Will lives in Wisconsin, but he gets a job to work for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, so he leaves his home and his girlfriend, Emily, to move to New York. Emily asks him to deliver her old diary to her former roommate, Summer, a woman now living in New York as an aspiring writer. Will is intrigued, but she is dating a much older man, so he forgets about her. He befriends the copy girl at his new job, April, and he tells her about Emily and his plans to propose to her. There are sparks between them, and at one point they kiss, but Will is not going to do that to Emily, so he gets away. Emily then tells Will that she slept with his roommate, because she wants him to break it off with her. He does, and when he discovers that Summer is currently available, having broken up with her older man, he begins seeing her. He considers proposing to her as well, but when an article she writes costs Will his job, he breaks up with her as well. He confesses his feelings for April shortly thereafter, but when he finds that she has a boyfriend, it's a dead end as well. He eventually re-kindles his romance with Emily, and Maya discovers that Emily is in fact her mother... but when Maya helps Will realize that he's been in love with April this whole time and he still has feelings for her, he must go find her and try to win her heart.
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Best part of story, including ending:
It's a fairly typical romance, not especially funny or interesting-- especially compared to the TV show How I Met Your Mother, to which it is remarkably similar.
Best scene in story:
Whenever Maya interrupts Will's storytelling and they begin talking, the movie shines, as Reynolds shares better chemistry with his daughter than the other women in his life.
Opinion about the main character:
Will is nice enough, I suppose, but overall he's a dud as the lead in a film, because he's pretty boring and unremarkable.
