Quips galore could have been written from the title alone were this a failure of a film, which, if I must be honest, I expected it to be. I watched it purely because I expected it to be great fodder for a review. Lately it's become apparent that the powers that be make terribly misleading trailers (see Something Borrowed review). I wrongly judged No Strings Attached for three, possibly four, reasons.
A. subject matter
B. the trailer
C. subject matter
....possibly....
D. Ashton Kutcher
This writer has been called a prude on more than one occasion. Suffice it to say casual sex is not part of my vocabulary and doesn't compute on many levels. Hence the subject matter was less than appealing. The trailer didn't seem to bear substance. I haven't seen anything with Ashton Kutcher that I found worth watching.
Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) meet at some kind of camp in their early teen years. Emma, even as a child, is a little awkward at showing affection. The two meet a few times over a span of six years, eventually sleep together, and decide to keep sleeping together as 'friends with (sexual) benefits.' (People should be specific here because don't we all benefit from our friends? If we don't they probably do. Someone's benefiting.) Adam develops feelings for Emma. Emma disengages because she doesn't want anything to do with love. Things happen, things happen, things happen, supporting characters advise our protagonists to stay together because they're meant to, and so Emma seeks forgiveness, Adams grants it and they decide to forge a meaningful relationship. In fact, everyone is forming meaningful relationships. It's relationships all around. Yaaaaaay.
It's as predictable as men leaving their wives for younger women, yes. Very predictable. However, our characters are just lovable. Ashton Kutcher was surprisingly charming, and not charming in his cute, boyish kind of way, actually grown-up charming. A boyfriend like Adam who makes me a period mix? An actual mix for my period? Incredible. Natalie Portman is Natalie Portman, and no one dislikes Natalie Portman. Incredible chemistry. The best I've witnessed in some time.
The film is nicely done. It's quiet. It's almost...indie. By no means is it Blue Valentine but it's also not The Ugly Truth/ atrocious. No horrendous dialogue or unnecessary subplots. Good casting in general. No over present acting. Again, the main story is predictable. Personally, I don't think the R-rated language added anything to the quality, which would then make it unnecessary. It's the other reason why this writer has been called a prude. My ears seem to envelop into the sides of my head when I hear certain words, of which there are quite a few in No Strings Attached. The crassness does subside, or rather soften.
I'd love to hold a forum for debate on the whole 'friends with benefits' issue but it would be irrelevant to this review. Also, judging from the wealth of comments on prior postings it wouldn't be much of a forum.
The lesson I'm learning writing this blog is not to judge films before I see them. Then again, how else do I choose which movies to waste my money on?
Should you see No Strings Attached? I can't say yes or no on this one. Again, I only saw it because I expected it to be bad. If I thought it was decent, I probably wouldn't have seen it anyway, unless it was on television. I'll say if it's between Ugly Truth and No Strings Attached, most definitely pick No Strings Attached. And no, this is NOT a precursor to a Friends with Benefits review.
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