No Strings Attached

No Strings Attached

A Film Review By: David Ramirez

★★/★★★★

What happens when two friends try to have a strictly physical relationship? We get the movie “No Strings Attached”, a romantic comedy that takes a look at a friend’s with benefits relationship. The film stars Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, as friends whose love lives are nonexistent for various reasons.  Due to their mutual relationship status they come to the decision to become “Friends with Benefits”. 

Ashton Kutcher plays Adam, a young man who more than anything else wants to find love, add in a celebrity father and you have a good mix to make a very interesting character. Sadly, although he has very good comedic timing he always seems to play the same role over and over again; the love struck goof ball. During the comedic moments of the film Kutcher really keeps us entertained, and gives us some very good laughs, but when it comes time to be serious he just can’t seem to do it. Kutcher trying to be serious is not very convincing, and it’s unfortunate because he does have talent but just isn't quite convincing in serious scenes. 

Natalie Portman is truly a trifecta, she’s very attractive, smart and funny.   In this film we see all three of those attributes come out right away and it makes for a truly entertaining performance.  The only down side is as the film progresses the character starts to feel like someone we’ve seen before, and we get the impression that maybe they really wrote the role for Katherine Heigl, as this seems to be the character she plays in every movie. I will give Ms. Portman credit, she does a good job and truly tries to make the character her own.     

Kevin Kline give’s a truly hilarious performance as Kutchers former television star father; he plays the A-typical Hollywood actor who doesn't realize he is no longer a young man anymore.  Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges and Jake Johnson, play Kutchers very funny friends who try and chime in with words of wisdom as he goes along on his journey of love. The support cast really helps add a level of humor to the film that would have been missing otherwise. From Kevin Kline’s un-fatherly actions, to Bridges and Johnson's advice that is sometimes ill-conceived but always meant with the best intentions.

The film does a good job of not over thinking or trying to be something that it is not. It keeps it simple and direct. With a movie about a “Friends with Benefits” relationship, you would think that they would bombard you with sex scenes, but in this case they do not, honestly that’s a good thing. The easy thing to do would be to give us a lot of sex scenes that would only act as a filler and take away from the story line.

In the end “No Strings Attached” is a fairly decent romantic comedy that does have a lot of funny and heartwarming moments. It can be a bit on the predictable side but it does give the audience what they want; some laughs and a happy ending. If you need a date movie or are considering a “Friends with Benefits” relationship then see this movie.