Friends with Benefits. Okay, one has to give it up to Mila Kunis, she definitely picked the better movie in the post-Black Swan competition with Natalie Portman. I’m not saying that Friends with Benefits is the perfect movie, but it is far better than No Strings Attached.
In this version of two friends trying to have a sexual relationship without the emotional attachment, we have Dylan (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie (Mila Kunis). Dylan is a successful art director executive who is contacted by a headhunter, Jamie, to take the top art director position at GQ magazine. He is initially hesitant about moving from Los Angeles to New York City, but he finally decides to go for it. As Jamie is the only person he knows in NYC, he strikes up a friendship with her. And well, the title tells the rest of the story.
The movie is entertaining, but at moments I couldn’t help but think about No Strings Attached. I swear at one point I was totally confused about which movie I was watching. That aside, Kunis and Timberlake had real film chemistry together. And I love the moment in the film where there is a distinct miscommunication regarding the direction of their relationship.
Also the side characters played by Patricia Clarkson, Jenna Elfman and Woody Harrelson were awesome and enhanced your understanding of the two leads.
I enjoyed the movie, but I can't fully praise it. In my opinion, the movie played it rather straight, but I felt that when they dealt with Dylan’s learning disability with math, they went over the top silly. It just didn’t fit with the movie style. Also, hopefully not giving too much away, but later in the movie we find out that Dylan’s decision to switch jobs was faced with major complications versus just the LA vs. NY reason that is giving at the beginning of the movie. This later revelation might make sense in the Dylan/Jamie department, but it doesn’t work out very well for the audience, which has to at least briefly consider rather or not Dylan is just a thoughtless jerk.
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