No Strings Attached | Review
‘No Strings Attached’ was the first film to come out this year featuring a guy and a girl who want to have sex with no commitments or relationships. But as we all know, including the neighbor walking his dog in the film, this type of relationship will not work out. Eventually one of the two will develop feelings for the other, and problems will ensue. A film like this can then take one of two routes: follow rom-com cliches and add nothing new, or follow rom-com cliches and add many new things. There’s no avoiding the cliche in Hollywood romantic-comedies. Unfortunately, ‘No Strings Attached’ follows the former route, and it’s a mediocre one.
The film follows two friends, a girl and a guy, who met one another at a summer camp. Then the film flashes forward a few years to the same friends meeting up again at a college party. Then another flash forward reveals the two friends running into one another at a farmer’s market. The guy, Adam (Ashton Kutcher), works for a television show, whereas the girl, Emma (Natalie Portman), works at a local hospital.
The immediate problem with ‘No Strings Attached’ is setting up the romance between Adam and Emma. The time lapses at the start of the film do nothing to develop their friendship, it’s just a short and easy way to introduce it, and it’s a weak one at that. And the idea to start a sex-only relationship between the two is pretty weak, too.
One night Adam gets really drunk, and eventually he ends up at Emma’s place, which she shares with her co-workers. The next morning Adam and Emma talk in her room, and then the next minute they’re having sex. The build-up and transition from talking to having sex is weak.
We soon find out that Emma doesn’t believe in long-term relationships because “it goes against our basic biology,” and also because her job is very demanding and time-consuming. Initially Adam is fine with the just-sex, but he soon falls for Emma and tries to win her over. Adam’s attempts to change Emma’s mind is sweet and adorable at times, but they’re nothing we haven’t seen before in other romantic comedies. At times, the relationship between Adam’s friend, Eli (Jake Johnson), and Emma’s friend, Patrice (Greta Gerwig), is far more interesting than Adam and Emma’s. Eli is the majority of the comic-relief in the film, and Patrice is just plain adorable. Seeing Eli and Patrice progressing their relationship outshines Adam and Emma’s when the whole “I’m afraid of commitment” schtick gets tiresome.
To sum it all up, ‘No Strings Attached’ is a fairly average romantic-comedy. The sub-plots involving Adam’s father dating his ex-girlfriend is hit-or-miss at times, but thankfully the cast of supporting characters bring some fun to the film when the main characters can’t. The great supporting actors include ‘The Office’s’ very own Mindy Kaling, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Guy Branum, and the previously mentioned Jake Johnson and Greta Gerwig.
