Film REVIEW Friends with Benefits

Let us spare a thought for a very pitiable group of people: young, rich, successful, beautiful New Yorkers who just cannot find love. Oh, how wretched they are as they mope around in their multi-million dollar show-home apartments, wander the streets in Prada-clad contemplation or sit forlornly at tables in painfully trendy bars searching for The One. Our hearts bleed.

Debbie Stowe

Two such unfortunates are our eponymous friends. We have Jamie (Mila Kunis), a top headhunter despite being in her mid-20s, whose yearning for true love is fuelled by her hippie mom not remembering who her dad is. She is trying to persuade commitment-phobic LA blogger Dylan (Justin Timberlake) to take a top job at GQ magazine. The two buddy up and, burned by their lack of relationship success, decide that as they are both gorgeous, young and single, they might as well enjoy no-strings-attached sex with each other.

I hope it will not come as much of a spoiler to reveal that their convenient arrangement begins to get complicated when the pair start to develop deeper feelings for each other and realize they want more than casual congress. You probably don’t need to see the film to be able to guess the ending fairly accurately.

There is absolutely nothing new here, as Friends with Benefits follows the blueprint of pretty much every romantic comedy ever made, particularly evoking No Strings Attached, which beat it to multiplexes by a few months.

What raises it slightly above the boundless romcom sludge is three things. First, the chemistry of the two stars. Rumors that life is imitating art (I use the word art in its loosest sense) and Timberlake and Kunis are dating are believable, based on their convincing on-screen romance.

Second, the supporting players. Romcoms like to give their protagonists quirky sidekicks – usually a kooky/sex mad/wise-cracking mom or best friend for her and loser-ish fat mate for him. Patricia Clarkson as Jamie’s promiscuous mother and Woody Harrelson as Dylan’s uber-gay GQ colleague provide high-quality humorous back-up. Third, the pathos. A sentimental subplot involving Dylan’s father’s (Richard Jenkins) dementia lays it on thick but is effective.
FWB is slick, well paced and has enough funny lines to punctuate the predictability. These benefits will win the movie a few friends, albeit not much love.

editorial@business-review.ro

Directed by: Will Gluck
Starring: Mila Kunis, Justin Timberlake, Woody Harrelson, Patricia Clarkson, Richard Jenkins
On at: Cinema City Cotroceni, Cinema City Sun Plaza, Hollywood Multiplex, Movieplex Cinema, The Light Cinema

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