We only wish we were able to enjoy this rom-com as much as JT and Mila Kunis enjoy banging each other....
Sony / 109 Minutes / 2011 / Rated R / Street Date: December 2, 2011
Jamie (Mila Kunis) and Dylan (Justin Timberlake) are lovely human specimens, and they are quite interested in banging each other. Dylan's an art director for a startup internet company, Jamie is a recruiter trying to nab Dylan for a magazine interview - and did I mention they're super-interested in having sex with each other?
When Dylan comes out to New York to sign a contract with Jamie, guess what they do? That's right, they hump. And unsurprisingly, they both seem to quite enjoy it. But neither are completely convinced that the bells and whistles of a full relationship are worth the bother, so they decide to remain friends with benefits, a couple of good-looking youngsters who tolerate each other's company well, and find more than a little compatibility between the sheets.
Similar in an almost note-for-note capacity with No Strings Attached (the one where Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher try to keep things strictly sexual), Friends With Benefits is an entirely transparent romantic comedy, one that unfolds with a blatant predictability that undermines any major dramatic or giggly pleasures one might derive from it. Kunis is riding a wave of Black Swan hotness - boy, is she easy on the eyes... - and everybody loves JT, but even with their occasional flint-spark of chemistry, the movie bumbles from opening credits to finale.
We get a couple engaging cameo star turns (Richard Jenkins, Patricia Clarkson, Woody Harrelson), a couple blush-worthy shots of bare skin (the movie at the very least earns its R rating), and maybe two or three "Awww...."-inducing romantic moments (can you guess whether they get together at the end?), but Friends With Benefits is a lemon of a picture, one that just doesn't work.
