The first thing I thought when I saw the trailer for Friends With Benefits was "Haven't I seen this movie already?" I was of course thinking of the uncanny similarities between this film and No Strings Attached which was released earlier this year. But I shouldn't judge a book by it's rip off cover as this is not the first time when two very similar films have been released in the same year, you may recall that Dante's Peak came out the same year as Volcano. As did Armageddon and Deep Impact. And although all of those films had similar themes, I'm sure their fans would agree that they are very different from each other. As are Friends With Benefits and No strings Attached. So let's get down to business (so to speak).
Here we have the story of Jamie (Mila Kunis), a headhunter for a big New York company who are looking for the new Editor of GQ Magazine. Jamie's most recent assignment is to look after hot shot LA Blog Editor Dylan (Justin Timberlake), while he's in New York for his interview. If she can sell him on the city that never sleeps, thereby coaxing him away from his friends and family in LA, maybe he'll take the job. Which of course, he does, and they soon become close friends as she's the only person he knows in New York. They soon turn their mutual griping about relationships and comforting of each other into a simple arrangement, sex and no emotions. But will it ruin a friendship that was starting to mean a lot to both of them for the sake of something as meaningless as casual sex?
Unlike the film it will be ultimately compared to, Friends With Benefits is about two people who have only just become friends, rather than the lifelong buddies seen in No Strings Attached. You may ask how this is important. I think it is, because it makes the whole film a lot lighter in tone than No Strings Attached as the couple at the center of proceedings (seemingly) have a lot less to lose. Unfortunately this seems to have made the creators of Friends With Benefits feel the need to make their film more emotionally engaging, and instead of sticking to the genuinely funny comedy and chemistry that Kunis and Timberlake have, they decided to go down the 'father with alzheimers' route.
This storyline feels unnecessary in a film like this and does make it feel a lot heavier than it should. Having said that I think all of the actors involved do a great job with this subject matter, it just shouldn't be in this particular film.
But enough of that and back to the comedy, as I said, the lighter aspects of the film allow for more laugh out loud moments than were had in No strings Attached, and I do think that overall this makes Friends With Benefits slightly more enjoyable than it's counterpart. We also have fun cameo's from Andy Samberg and Emma Stone who play the boyfriend/girlfriend of Jamie and Dylan respectively at the start of the movie.
While I stated earlier that Kunis and Timberlake have chemistry I will go one further and say that I can almost see what her character Jamie sees in him (almost - I'm not a Justin Timberlake fan so it takes a lot for me to say that). Something that can't be said for her supposed boyfriend at the start of the movie who dumps her. I don't care how emotionally damaged she is, there's no way that a geeky slacker such as Quincy would land a girl like Jamie, and if he did I don't think he'd dump her in the middle of the street. Maybe I'm giving guys more credit than they deserve but this start to the movie just didn't seem believable to me.
It's not a demanding movie, but an enjoyable fling for a Friday night with a friend nonetheless. 7.5 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 9th September 2011
UK Release Date - 9th September 2011
Cast Overview:
Justin Timberlake ~ Dylan
Mila Kunis ~ Jamie
Patricia Clarkson ~ Lorna
Jenna Elfman ~ Annie
Bryan Greenberg ~ Parker
Richard Jenkins ~ Mr Harper (Dylan's Dad)
Woody Harrelson ~ Tommy
Andy Samberg ~ Quincy
Emma Stone ~ Kayla
Director ~ Will Gluck
Writer(s) ~ Keith Merryman (Screenplay and Story), David A Newman (Screenplay and Story), Will Gluck (Screenplay) and Harley Payton (Story).
No comments:
Post a Comment