In No Strings Attached stars Emma (Natatlie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) are two friends who adventure outside of the friend zone. After a sexual encounter they agree to keep it coming so long as they don’t fall in love. She’s a rising doctor, he’s an aspiring TV writer. Can they keep their non-relationship going?
Kutcher and Portman go through a range of states in their relationships. There’s always something different for them to do. In the case of Adam, maturity is evident. For Portman a muffin binge can serve as a comedic way of displaying her character’s emotions. It’s a balancing act to make these promiscuous individuals likeable and thanks to some charming moments, the audience can really get behind them. As fundamental as their first date was, the roller coaster of affections and disdain can engulf the viewer. Maybe I’m just showering it with praise for having a simple shared milkshake scene where other movies would have them at a concert or Lakers game.
There are a number of smaller roles that have a great attention to details, two worth highlighting are Lake Bell as Lucy and Kevin Klein as Alvin. Apparently Alvin was in a hit show called Great Scott, to which everyone always wants him to shout his catch phrase: Great Scott! Kevin is Adam’s dad but he’s more of a friend and sleazeball. Meanwhile Lucy is talkative producer, which sounds unlikeable by description. With a shade over cameo role, Bell turns in a surprisingly respectable comedic performance.
This films comes from director Ivan Reitman, and the tone appears to borrowed from his son’s work. Characters, for the most part, are behaving in step with the real world. It’s not wall-to-wall laughs but there are some clever elements of wordplay, and thankfully absent are slapstick shenanigans. The world doesn’t need to see Natalie Portman as Jim Carrey.
No Strings Attached is rated R for language and sexually suggestive content. You kind of have to figure that a movie based on reinforcing monogamy, by playing on the emptiness found without it, is going to end up that way. What shocks me the most is the emphasis on the romance over the comedy, and for once in a long while it appears that Hollyweird got it right. ***
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