MOVIE MADNESS: No Strings Attached

NO STRINGS ATTACHED (2011)

Lead Cast: Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher

Director: Ivan Reitman

Paramount Pictures

Romance-Comedy

Rotten Tomatoes:

In this comedy, Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) are life-long friends who almost ruin everything by having sex one morning. In order to protect their friendship, they make a pact to keep their relationship strictly "no strings attached." "No strings" means no jealousy, no expectations, no fighting, no flowers, no baby voices. It means they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, in whatever public place they want, as long as they don't fall in love. The questions become - Can you have sex without love getting in the way? And can their friendship survive?

*****

Movie Caution:
Contains mature scenes (sexual content) and language. 

While waiting for a large file to finish downloading last night, I entertained myself by watching a movie. I watched more or less the first ten minutes of several movies before finally deciding to watch a romance-comedy starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher.

This is a the story of an independent woman who is afraid to fall in love and get hurt and a man who is “annoyingly happy all the time.” They have met in a summer camp 15 years before, never really kept in touch but have bumped into each other on a few occasions. Now, an unexpected turn of events have caused both of them to get into a “friends with benefits” situation wherein deep feelings for one another is strictly prohibited, just a purel physical relationship. But we all know what’s going to happen… somebody eventually falls in love with the other and it messes up the friendship blah blah blah. As clichéd as it sounds, I still liked this film.

People who might be overly conservative and a bit close-minded should take caution watching this film because there is a lot of sex going on. But due to the comedic attack of the movie, those scenes weren't really the kind that would need to be restricted. No explicit nudity or very harsh curses, unless you count Ashton Kutcher flashing his butt (if that was even his butt) and the repeated use of the “f” word. But overall, disregarding the sex parts (or not), it was actually a good movie. It made me laugh (but I tried to hold it back because it’s already midnight and parents probably won’t approve of my midnight shenanigans) and the development of the characters' love story was pretty good too. Though a bit cliché and predictable, I did not get annoyed with it.

As I've said before, I am not the best judge when it comes to acting skills, but I think both Ashton and Natalie did a good job in this movie. They had chemistry, and both of them registered well on screen. The sweet scenes were sweet and sad scenes were sad. I liked how they portrayed the characters, and let’s face it… They are both well-looking actors.

Now I know that there is also another movie with a similar story line – Friends with Benefits starring Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, released the same year as this one. I have also seen this movie already, but it was a year or two ago… Just a quick comparison, though. I think No Strings Attached is a little better than Friends With Benefits in terms of romance and comedy. I found it a tad funnier, sweeter and the leads were better (just a little bit though, because I also like JT and Mila). But the ending of Friends With Benefits is cooler than No Strings Attached.

Again... Caution!!! Skip the parts that you don’t want or you are not allowed to see when watching this movie.

No Strings Attached Trailer