No Strings Attached Review

By: Robert Acosta

Cast:
Natalie Portman as Emma
Ashton Kutcher as Adam
Kevin Kline as Alvin
Greta Gerwig as Patrice

Plot: A writer and an aspiring doctor try to keep their relationship simple, but eventually realize that simple is just not possible.

Review: I'm usually pretty critical of Romantic Comedies, now to be abbreviated as Rom-Com. Blame it on me being a guy, but i'm not sure you can really name that as the reason. I like a good Rom-Com. I'm a closet romantic, or so I consider myself one, and these kind of movies play to my liking.

But the key word in all that was "good". Good may be a subjective word and all, but there are certain things that Rom-Coms can and can't be. No Strings Attached leaned more towards the good side than bad, but not without flaw.

What really makes Rom-Coms so hated for the most part, has to do with how typical they are. You start with 2 people, man and woman, who usually can't stand each other, are complete opposites or have some sort of history with each other. No Strings Attached follows this formula to a tee, just with a little more comedy than most Rom-Coms.

You take someone like Natalie Portman, who seemingly cannot do anything wrong as of late, pair her with Ashton Kutcher, who seems to thrive in these kind of movies, and you have something that works. Pretty amazing chemistry going on, which only makes the movie that much more enjoyable.

On the other hand, the secondary characters mostly lack character with the exception of one character. Greta Grewig as Patrice, one of Natalie Portmans co-workers and best friends in the film, is one of the only bright spots from the secondary characters. She is the only one who shows any life in her character. Ludacris is in the film(fun fact), plays one of Kutchers best friends, and he only manages to come up with one liners that are somewhat funny. You got Jake M. Johnson playing Kutchers best friend as well, and I found him to be annoying. He did almost did nothing with feeling or enthusiam and had only one funny thing.

That's where the movie falls flat. Whenever Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman are on screen together, it's magical. Have one of them off screen, replace one of them with one of the other characters, and all of a sudden, you have a dull movie. Lake Bell, who plays an assistant at the same job Kutcher works at, ends up playing more of major role than I thought she would. I understand, she is supossed to come off awkward and clumsy but the audience really didn't respond to her character. Towards the end, her character began to pick up but for the first hour plus, no one really gave a damn about her.

The comedy is there. The romance is there. Kutcher and Portman are amazing together. But, the movie falls flat so many times, in so many areas, that it's hard to call this a great movie. It's a good movie, an enjoyable one. It's no Love and Other Drugs, i'll tell you that. I hate to make that comparison but Love and Other Drugs, for me, has set the standard for the "modern" Rom-Com.

Rating: 3 out of 5