Movie Review: No Strings Attached

Hollywood remained quiet this week, as the unimpressive “No Strings Attached” was the only film that opened in wide release. It made a healthy $20.3 million at the box office in its opening weekend, securing a strong lead over last week’s action release “The Green Hornet” despite the pretty consistent flow of negative critical reviews.

I was nearly pleasantly surprised by “No Strings Attached.” That wasn’t hard to do, because I expected it to be an unintelligent movie flop. But, though I did not truly like the movie, I did not feel like it was a waste of my time to watch. It was even worth a couple good laughs.

The plot doesn’t pull any unexpected punches. After his girlfriend leaves him for his father’s rich arms, Adam (Ashton Kutcher) drunkenly calls every girl in his phone to find some rebound sex. A non-serious and sexual relationship is all that Emma (Natalie Portman) is looking for, so the two make a deal to continue having casual sex with each other. But of course, feelings get in the way, and things start to get serious. No surprises there.

The director of “No Strings Attached” has an impressive movie résumé. Starting with his producing role in “Animal House” in 1978, Ivan Reitman, has either been the director or the wallet for many of our American comedy classics. He also was the producer of “Ghostbusters,” “Old School,” and “Eurotrip.” He was also recently announced to be behind the helm on “Ghostbusters III.”

Based off Ashton Kutcher’s last awful romantic comedy “Killers” that couldn’t even be saved by the beauty of Katherine Heigl, I had thought he was doomed to never grow up. But, I was pleasantly surprised by his nearly-intelligent and well-presented performance in “No Strings Attached.” Hopefully this is a sign that he has realized that he can’t act like Michael Kelso for every role in the future.

The gorgeous Natalie Portman was a surprising casting decision to play opposite of Kutcher. For starters, she is fresh from her role in the critically-acclaimed film, “Black Swan,” a serious psychological thriller. However, her character’s intelligence and wittiness helps to balance out Kutcher’s often simplistic gags. It is also refreshing to see a new face to the mainstream romantic comedy genre.

The main cast is some funny supporting actors as well. Ludacris steps into another film role as Adam’s friend, where he was able to bring a couple laughs and some much-needed racial diversity to the movie. Mindy Kaling, star of “The Office” also brings some crude humor to the mix. Without the right supporting roles, “No Strings Attached” might have completely failed.

The bottom line: if this is your type of movie, then you may enjoy it. Under the right circumstances, “No Strings Attached” could be a decent date movie – undoubtedly better for a first date than next week’s releases of “The Rite” and “The Mechanic.” Otherwise, you may want to wait for this one to show up on Netflix or in the Red Box.

Posted by Ryan Del Campo on Jan 27 2011. Filed under Features, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.