At first glance, the title Friends with Benefits might bring to mind an excruciatingly predictable remake of last year’s Portman-Kutcher No Strings Attached. Two sexy, single friends try to get it on without falling in love? Please, haven’t we seen this one before? But with Will Gluck, the director of last year’s surprisingly fun and breezy Easy-A, in charge, it seemed like this movie might be more fun than the formulaic premise suggests.
The story begins with some background about our two leading characters, Dylan (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie (Mila Kunis), breaking up with their respective girlfriend and boyfriend. Both swear that they will never, ever, ever succumb to the clichés of Hollywood romance again. Circumstances force the two new singles to live in the same city, where Dylan realizes that Jamie is essentially his only friend. Naturally, this forces the two to spend lots and lots of time together, which ultimately leads to them having lots and lots of casual sex. To prove to themselves that they are really are “just friends”—a claim that gets progressively less credible every time they hop into bed—both attempt to date other people. Not surprisingly, this fails miserably. Each man that Jamie dates initially seems perfect, but ends up epitomizing the term “sleazeball.” Bit by bit, she realizes that Dylan is the first person she thinks of in every situation and she starts to realize her feelings are changing.
There’s a lot of tedious and unnecessary backstory wedged in there via exceedingly trite dialogue. We don’t really need to know about Dylan’s mathematical abilities or family problems, because, let’s face it, all of us are just here to watch the two leads goof off and eventually get together. What saves this movie from the rom-com doldrums is the chemistry between Timberlake and Kunis, which is spot-on. The two make an appealing couple, managing to be fun to watch and much more likeable than the usually two-dimentional characters in such movies. Unfortunately, that chemistry is really the only thing Friends with Benefits has going for it.
