Amici, amanti e...

No Strings Attached (2011)

You expect more than you're going to get here. There are two strong leads, Natalie Portman at her finest relaxed self (seeming) and Ashton Kutcher in a slightly amusing, self-deprecating mode that is a little dulling but fits his part. But there isn't the necessary conflict here to make their attraction take on fire. They drift together, they push apart, they find each other again, and so on, all mildly engaging and a bit sleepy.

And don't expect much from Kevin Kline, either, mostly because his part is small and a bit canned, a caricature dad with too much to prove. The rest of the cast is frankly just functional, and you start to look harder at why the movie fizzles with so much apparent talent, especially Portman. And the only real answer is the director, who is more a producer at heart, Ivan Reitman. You can't fault the success of some of his movies, but it's an uneven bunch, from "Ghostbusters" to "Kindergarden Cop." Something lacks energy and imagination here, and the writing stretched a bit.

Enjoyable? Somewhat. Be warned, it's not funny, romantic, or energized enough to quite make it on any score.

This film is about two sex friends who, slowly but surely, develop feelings for each other.

Considering the cast and the big budget, "No Strings Attached" is very disappointing. The two leads are very attractive, but they have little chemistry with each other. Maybe it's to do with the nature of their initial relationship, they do not have any sparks with each other, and hence their subsequent feelings seem so forced and unrealistic. There is little comedy either, the whole plot is plainly delivered. With nothing much to laugh about, no romance to savour, "No Strings Attached" becomes a lacklustre bore.

What is most fascinating about this movie is that it's a raunchy rom-com from the female perspective. Knowing that the film was written by a woman prior to my viewing it made the nuances jump out to me. It's those nuances and that perspective that make the film enjoyable. No one scene or moment merits more then a minor chuckle but the characters themselves expand and grow as the story unfolds. It's hard to care about the leads at first because there's no set up or real establishment of character. Then, they kind of grow on you even though neither really rang true for me in any real world sense. Natalie Portman is great as many would expect but Ashton Kutcher did a fine job as well. I've seen others criticizing his performance but I think that's based on a pre-determined hatred of him rather than on his work. The supporting characters were VERY weak and useless save for the father character played by the wonderful Kevin Kline. Overall, better than I was expecting it to be.

I gave this movie an 8/10 simply because it will keep you laughing the majority of the time. Sure the ending is predictable and a few of the background actors deliver lackluster performances but Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher fit very nicely together as the main characters, you could really tell they had fun working together.

I see a lot of other reviews criticizing Portman for "stooping to this level" and I'm not too sure why, maybe they didn't go see it in the right frame of mind...this movie is what it is, a romantic comedy about two friends who decide to take their relationship to the next level without having any of the commitments and "duties" of being an actual couple, that's what the trailers showed it as, that's what the actors described it as, nothing was a surprise...she did a cute, funny romantic comedy, it's not like she dove head first into the adult film industry.

Will this movie be nominated for awards, probably, will it win, probably not, but overall it was cute, it was funny, and I left the theater feeling like the $10 I paid for a ticket was well worth it.

Decent acting, sure. But the core, dialog and development offers very little to anyone older than 16.

The movie has one or two memorable moments. The rest was just bubble gum.

Given the outset, adding any delightful, surprising, thought provoking or interesting situations would be hard, but very possible. Though I obviously didn't watch this movie for depth, but when the brain is missing I do expect the heart to be compensated. This movie just simply failed to deliver.

If asked I wouldn't be able to pinpoint any particular reason to recommend this movie.