Friends With Benefits (Will Gluck, 2011): USA
Reviewed by Kyle Calbreath. Viewed on DVD.
Two films came out this past year based upon the idea of being emotionless sex fulfilled buddies. One was original, vulgar and full of quotable moments and the other, well, stared Ashton Kutcher.
These films would be so aptly named Friends with Benefits and No Strings Attached. Again one was fun and fresh and the other stared Ashton Kutcher. And instead of renting or attending the theater to view an awards season film I instead choose these two charmers to keep my ever wandering attention span.
Friends with Benefits is the tale of two young attractive people who are both in the dumps with relationships. Dylan, a safe and creative media artist, (Justin Timberlake) takes to New York to pursue a job opportunity brought to him by a beautiful and sly corporate head hunter, Jamie (Mila Kunis). They become fast friends and after some time chilling with one another decide to make the leap and have sex without the emotion, to become friends with benefits.
No Strings Attached is the same story line but less interesting and far more grimace worthy. The main characters begin knowing each other at a young age and further their relationship into their late twenties. From the very beginning the two, Adam (Ashton Kutcher) and Emma (Natalie Portman) are doomed to fall in love because Adam keeps getting far too adventurous in his completely obvious affection toward the dowdy and emotionless Emma.
While both films are no bread winners No Strings Attached is a mundane and sad tale of love at first sight whereas Friends with Benefits is a witty and sexy take on the stale romantic comedy genre.
The casting of Milas Kunis to play the self-described “emotionally damaged” lively and fun young women is perfect. She delivers the role with humor and conviction mobilizing her steadily striking good looks and natural comic ability. The supporting roles of Woody Harrelson, who plays Dylan’s out and proud gay co-worker and Patricia Clarkson, playing Jamie’s carefree slut of a mother are the movies saving grace. With script lines like “I’d like to take you trolling for cock” and “so my daughter is just your slam piece?” are abrupt and forever funny in context. The cameo appearances of Emma Stone and Andy Sambeg in the first act of the film are hilarious. Stone throwing zingers like “Next time you think you’re going to be late why don’t you just take a shit on my face” are memorable and I will be robbing this phrase for use in my own social life.
Without Harrelson and Clarkson’s outrageous one liner’s and antics through the film, the movie may have just had two other best friend roles filled by faceless human husks of actors the way No Strings Attached chose to employ.
All of the characters in Friends were upbeat and active whereas the characters in No Strings seemed to carry out the same monotone deliverance of lines as if they all had taken a hand-full of muscle relaxers. The script writing in No Strings is so bland and stark that the most thrilling line was when Emma is describing her relationship problems, “I just end up with a broken heart and a bunch of old t-shirts,” this was when I hit the fast forward.
The high key lighting with lush and crisp set design in Friends is still a common rom-com feature and it continues to work without flaw. Dylan and Jamie both live in large apartments and work in high paying glamorous dream jobs, but they are not privy to the idea that they are these young hot shots. A good sturdy romantic comedy does not need the audience feeling sorry about the living situation these people are in but the romantic entanglements they are getting into. In No Strings the two main characters are placed in bright florescent lighting washing them out attempting to possibly cast an “indie” glow to the feature. It made the cast of characters seem sad and desperate, which I suppose they are.
The costume design in Friends is relevant to the characters in that they are, again, young hot shots. They are dressed professionally and aware of the positions they are in. Dylan wears tailored shirts that are business but no Donald Trump as he is the art director at GQ and this is what people who work at GQ must dress like, chic, friendly, buttoned up without being buttoned down. Same goes for Jamie. She often wears high heels to work with fitted skirts and dresses and flip flops and cut-off jeans around the house or city. She is sexy and fierce and fluid in her confident life movements.
The costumes worn by Adam in No Strings are baggy on his tall frame and his hair is the same messy shag Kutcher is used to wearing on the red carpets. Emma is dressed in scrubs half the time and walks around the hospital wearing them as if they were her burden and not part of her passion. The clothing makes the characters look childish, which is the point given the youthful hooking up situation, but when it comes to a sex scene no one wants to watch a couple of children who can’t dress much less deliver a proper groan between the sheets.
No Strings Attached ended up being an uneventful movie, unfortunately starring the forever unmemorable Ashton Kutcher. Friends with Benefits turned out to be a vulgarly polished adult romantic comedy full of sex and wonderful comic bits. The fresh young faces and comic timing of Timberlake and Kunis are well received and naturally graceful and their costars fully support and enhance the casting choices. And whereas Friends chooses to mock the clichés of romantic comedies, even employing an over the top flash mob scene to win back the girl, No Strings just becomes a confused desperate aborted cliché of what humorous romance must be.
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