No Strings Attached (**½)
Directed
by: Ivan Reitman
Starring:
Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, Greta Gerwig, Jake M. Johnson, Cary Elwes,
Mindy Kaling, Kevin Kline, Chris Bridges (Ludacris), Lake Bell, Ophelia
Lovibond, Guy Branum
Seen:
April 2nd 2011
**½
Out of ****
As
director, Ivan Reitman has had quite a career: 2 Ghostbuster movies,
Kindergarten Cop, Six Days Seven Nights, Evolution and most recently My Super
Ex-Girlfriend. All of them haven’t been equally successful though, and No
Strings Attached is simply part of a continuing trend: it breaks no new ground
in the romantic comedy genre and as a rehash of the familiar trajectory
romantic comedies usually follows, it doesn’t stand out as a potential classic
– in a few years it will be just another generic DVD lost in a sea of mediocre
movies.
No
Strings Attached starts with a short scene from 15 years ago, with two young
teenagers, Emma and Adam, sitting on a bench sharing an awkward moment as Adam
talks about his parents’ divorce while Emma talks of her not being suited for
this kind of talk. The movie jumps to the two sharing another chance encounter
10 years later, and another one 4 years later, where Adam (Kutcher) eventually
takes Emma’s (Portman) number, but doesn’t call her as he has a girlfriend,
Vanessa (Lovibond). In present time, we are introduced to Adam’s father, Alvin
(Kline), who treats Adam to the shocking revelation that he is dating Vanessa,
and in a drunken charge Adam calls every girl in his phone book to hook up for
the night. He awakes in a strange apartment, naked, with Shira (Kaling), Guy
(Branum) and Patrice (Gerwig) all commenting on “last night”. When Emma walks
in she leads Adam to her room where his clothes are, and in the explanation of
events surrounding his drunken stupor, the two hook up. This is the start of their
relationship that is not a relationship, as Emma is emotionally unavailable and
seriously avoids anything resembling romance. They work out a deal by which
they classify themselves as sex buddies, and things seem to be running smoothly
for a while. But obviously it can’t last, and Adam falls for Emma, with Emma
keeping Adam at an distance emotionally. As viewer however, you know Hollywood will not take long to
resolve their conflicts into an almost Disney-like moment of giddy happiness.
But
No Strings Attached has its problems. When it takes the romance the better part
of 90 minutes to kick into gear and when the sweetest romance is that of two
fringe characters (Adam’s friend Eli and Emma’s friend Patrice start a very
sweet and affecting little relationship) for more than the first hour, you know
things aren’t as they should be. The movie does have quite an affecting pay-off
right at the end (and who doesn’t love a Hollywood ending every now and then),
but it really is too late, following too much avoidance of the issue by the
characters and the screenplay before a few minutes of frantic scrambling to get
things just right. Ashton Kutcher disappears next to Natalie Portman when they
share the screen, with the charm he has exhibited in some previous movies
mostly missing here while Portman does a good transition from emotionally
unavailable to confused individual to enlightened soul, even though both steps
occur rather quickly.
No
Strings Attached is fitfully funny, but at the end of the day it tries too hard
to convey extreme points of views characters turn from or change to. Overall
it’s forgettable with unimpressive characters. Let’s hope the coming Friends
With Benefits, about the same kind of relationship arch, starring Justin
Timberlake and Mila Kunis, is better than this one...
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