Every once in a while I'll come across a rom-com that I like. It's rare, but it happens. This wasn't one of those times. I gave it a shot because of Ryan Reynolds.

After the first fifteen minutes I thought "Chaos Theory" was going to be another "Yes Man" or so many other movies where it's all about taking chances, living for the moment, following your passions, etc. Which Hollywood likes to sell to us working stiffs with families and bills. That theme can only be as popular as it is for a reason. Maybe it's to make us better consumers because most of the time following one's passions usually means forking over a lot of cash.

"Chaos Theory" turned out to be a little bit "take chances" with a lot bit understanding what makes a child yours.

Frank (Ryan Reynolds) was an organized box-checker type of guy who carried lists around with him to keep him on task. If it wasn't on the list then it wasn't important and it didn't need to be done right now. He married his friend Susan (Emily Mortimer) who he was madly in love with. One day a small deviation from his list caused a series of events that led to his wife kicking him out of the house and him finding out that he was sterile. "Sterile? But wait doc, I have a daughter." He had a daughter who was most likely fathered by his friend Buddy (Stuart Townsend),but we never find out definitively who is the father. What we get is a tear-filled impassioned plea from his wife explaining to him that the child is his because she calls him daddy and he loves her.

It was a 90 minute movie with a few laughs attempting to explain the complexities of love. People make mistakes, but you can't throw away years of love for one mistake. And then they live happily ever after. It was a lesson I could've done without.

Jesse Allen (Elisabeth Harnois) is getting married but her groom Ed (Mike Erwin) has cold feet. He finds out that she was with somebody else when they broke up. Her father Frank (Ryan Reynolds) finds him sneaking out the back door and sits him down for a talk. He tells him about his life with his wife Susan (Emily Mortimer),womanizing best friend Buddy Endrow (Stuart Townsend) and Paula Crowe (Sarah Chalke).

There is a slight comedic tone in the movie that is ill-fitting. The story struggles to get going. The characters are not that appealing. The misunderstanding is ridiculously stupid. It feels like a silly sitcom. When Frank goes crazy, the movie gets better. If only the movie can figure out how to get there without the silly setup.

Spontaneity is not a highly esteemed commodity in Frank Allen's catalogue of virtues. An efficiency trainer by avocation, Frank is a man whose own life is organized entirely around to-do lists, time charts and abstrusely calculated probabilities. Then, one day Frank becomes a victim of circumstances so utterly beyond his control that he is forced to abandon his old way of thinking and adopt a new philosophy of life altogether, that of throwing caution to the wind and letting his every mercurial whim determine the course of his actions (he shuffles index cards to determine what it is he should do next).

"Chaos Theory," a small but insightful movie written by Daniel Taplitz and directed by Marcos Siega, boasts a cleverly addled storyline, some sharp, witty dialogue and energetic performances by Reynolds, Emily Mortimer and Stuart Townsend, the latter two as Frank's wife and best friend, respectively. The plot complications get pretty hot and heavy at times but, as with all good comedy, things have a way of straightening themselves out in the end.

Though there may be a few too many musical montage sequences in the movie for my taste - they always seem to be used as shortcuts to get the heart soaring or the tear ducts flowing - the movie has a fluidity and charm that raise it above any possible shortcomings. Moreover, the Pacific Northwest setting provides a scenic backdrop for all the amusing shenanigans taking place on center stage.