Friends With Benefits

Year: 2011

Grade: B-

Country: USA

Director: Gluck

Review

not as good as no strings attached, which is essentially the same film, however it does have some poignancy to it thanks to the underrated richard jenkins. jenkins plays timberlake’s father who has dementia. timberlake’s issue is that he can’t open up with people, especially girls. kunis’ issue is that she can’t seem to find the right guy. they’re both 20 something hip, successful big city types. there are about 25 jokes about new york and la in the first half hour of the film. frankly i found it obnoxious how much they wanted the audience to know that the movie was filmed in new york (to such extent that there was a fake film within the film that served as fodder for the characters to comment on how fake other romantic comedies are – “that’s shot in a studio in la.” “oh, listen how the music swells to signify that we should be feeling something.” etc.). the point being that the filmmakers know this is a “rom com” and it is therefore limited by its genre. it’s referential to film and pop culture in other ways too. there are a million references to music (closing time, third eye blind, kriss kross), celebrities (clooney, heigl), and movies (it happened one night, on the waterfront, bob & carol & ted & alice). it’s always reminding us where it is physically and within pop culture. honestly, none of that added to the film in anyway for me. i’m not sure if it was to make a point about expectations of love because of the media that surrounds us or what.

overall it was a passable film with two stars that have been better elsewhere. it wasn’t great as a comedy, but the romantic arc was more or less believable. the big finale isn’t cliché but we knew it wouldn’t be after they say how cheesy rom coms are.

Watched in theater