{"id":796,"date":"2011-02-22T23:51:42","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T23:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/?p=796"},"modified":"2011-02-22T23:51:42","modified_gmt":"2011-02-22T23:51:42","slug":"no-strings-attached-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/rom-com\/no-strings-attached-3\/","title":{"rendered":"No Strings Attached – 3*"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After playing such an intense and psychologically disturbed young woman in Black Swan<\/a><\/em>, Oscar nominee Natalie Portman<\/a> deserves a bit of light relief, and Ivan Reitman<\/a>\u2019s No Strings Attached<\/em><\/a> offers just that \u2013 for both actor and viewer alike. Instantly, it has critics convulsing at the very thought of \u2018yet another romcom\u2019, and even more so with notorious \u2018film-jinxer\u2019 Ashton Kutcher<\/a> at the helm. Although it falls into the many clich\u00e9d traps of the genre (for example, girl and boy denying the flaming obvious), it actually has some amicable and candid qualities that make it more appealing than the usual run-of-the-mill offerings of recent months.<\/p>\n

It takes the ago-old premise of the iconic When Harry Met Sally<\/em><\/a>\u2019s \u2018friends with benefits\u2019, and ramps up the \u2018sex only\u2019 part. Only this time, it\u2019s the woman who\u2019s more sexually active and nonchalant about the relationship, with the man wanting more. But the female\u2019s guard must come down for the \u2018rom\u2019 to work its magic. Therefore, that\u2019s were it plays to the genre\u2019s predictability, which is why some are having an unsurprising pop at it. The fact is, No Strings Attached<\/em> does keep you pleasantly entertained because you can\u2019t help but like all the characters involved, the majority of which have a realistic stance on relationships. It also serves up how most of the genre\u2019s fans want their romcom to play out \u2013 obviously, but with more credible beings that don\u2019t live in an idyllic microcosm of affluent smugness.<\/p>\n

Kutcher plays Adam, an aspiring writer who\u2019s still stuck in rut in a PA job for a Glee-style TV show. Portman is Emma, the girl he tried to indecently proposition years earlier at summer camp. Emma has since grown up into a stunning commitment-phobe and workaholic doctor. After discovering that his successful screenwriter Dad (played by Kevin Kline<\/a>) has been banging his ex, a drunken Adam grabs his phone and goes through his address book, until he finds \u2018no strings attached\u2019 sex for the night. Emma is the lucky lady \u2013 although the deed happens the next morning as Adam was in an intoxicated haze. After a heated bed session before brunch, she and Adam decide to be \u2018f*ckbuddies\u2019 (the original title of Elizabeth Meriwether<\/a>\u2019s screenplay that was wisely changed). But love seeps in and spoils everything. On paper, it sounds totally predictable, but that\u2019s the point, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

What is a shock is Kutcher is a welcome surprise in this film, in a part that many of us would expect him to annihilate, especially since the release of the nauseating Valentine’s Day<\/a><\/em>. He combines his \u2018cute\u2019 and fun-loving aspects and good looks (he\u2019s obviously been working on his upper body tone with image-conscious wife Demi) with an altogether pathetic, self-depreciating side that allow us to sympathise and openly mock him in equal measure. It\u2019s the first time this critic has \u2018got him\u2019 in any role as he plays to his strengths. Admittedly, he has some fine, albeit under-used talent assisting him, with a supporting cast of Klein, Ludacris<\/a>, Jake Johnson<\/a> and Lake Bell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Portman who has been emotionally stiff in past roles, unless she\u2019s playing fragile and tormented, turns on a hidden charm offensive that ultimately dissolves her ballsy independent fa\u00e7ade as Emma. She comes across as sharply witty, divinely adorable and decidedly un-clingy \u2013 every man\u2019s dream, surely? Kutcher and Portman seem like an unlikely screen combination, especially with the height difference, but produce an incandescent coupling full of cynical but amusing banter, even though their characters suffer that one-dimensionality associated with the genre. There is a wonderful \u2018time of the month\u2019 moment, where Adam makes a period tape and delivers it and a box of donuts to a suffering Emma and her roomies to enjoy, which is actually quite touching.<\/p>\n

Reitman has got his casting right in this, even if he doesn\u2019t fully deploy all their talents, sparingly using those of comedy genius Klein and Cary Elwes<\/a> as priggish dreamboat Dr. Metzner who believes he\u2019s the best catch for Emma. However, the first issue is the beginning of the film, which is stilted and unconvincing as to how Adam and Emma become friends at all, let alone \u2018friends with benefits\u2019. Aside from their school meeting, they seem more like distant acquaintances that happen to keep bumping into each other. Would Emma even entertain allowing Adam into her life, if he called up drunk and asking for a bit of action out of the blue, or put him down as a freak? Still, Adam could have Emma\u2019s number after all these years, especially as she was a teen crush\u2026<\/p>\n

Secondly, the writing isn\u2019t quite as snappy and on a par with the likes of Apatow<\/a>\u2019s or Reitman Jr<\/a>\u2019s work, sloppily falling back on well-worn material and the odd inject of tired schoolboy humour (fingering jokes aside) \u2013 even if the latter is done with the biggest of hearts and winks. There is a teeth-jangling one-liner at the end that ends up destroying all respect the sassy leads had subsequently built up. But love is blind and soppy in the heat of the moment when someone wears their heart on their sleeve, so we can\u2019t be too critical, can we?<\/p>\n

Reitman makes sure all the loose ends are satisfactorily sown up in No Strings Attached<\/em>. The Kutcher-Portman chemistry is left to react naturally in an almost loosely improv\u2019d way, and fizzes away nicely in this amicable \u2018buddy\u2019 tale of the sexes, without bringing any unnecessary blushes to the cast with vulgar, cheap jokes that could creep into such a sexually-confident storyline. And even though the poster would have you think otherwise, the nudity and sex scenes are prudently done to enhance its \u2018nookie-only\u2019 subject matter, rather than turning it into a titillating smut fest. Portman fans traumatised by her sexually aggressive antics in Black Swan<\/em> can be reassured that she reverts back to her exquisite self, albeit with a newfound sexual confidence and maturity. And Kutcher can finally be comfortable with a performance, too.<\/p>\n

3\/5 stars <\/strong><\/p>\n

By @FilmGazer<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/div>\n
No Strings Attached<\/a> – The best bloopers are a click away<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After playing such an intense and psychologically disturbed young woman in Black Swan, Oscar nominee Natalie Portman deserves a bit of light relief, and Ivan Reitman\u2019s No Strings Attached offers just that \u2013 for both actor and viewer alike. Instantly, it has critics convulsing at the very thought of \u2018yet another romcom\u2019, and even more … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “No Strings Attached – 3*”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[785,602,792,788,784,790,793,241,787,791,789,603,726,786],"class_list":["post-796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rom-com","tag-ashton-kutcher","tag-black-swan","tag-cary-elwes","tag-elizabeth-meriwether","tag-ivan-reitman","tag-jake-johnson","tag-jason-reitman","tag-judd-apatow","tag-kevin-kline","tag-lake-bell","tag-ludacris","tag-natalie-portman","tag-no-strings-attached","tag-when-harry-met-sally"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":800,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions\/800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}