Friends With Benefits

My local news station does a question of the day everyday where they ask the public a survey question and a few weeks ago the question of the day was which celebrity do people want to stop acting and return to music? The answer was Justin Timberlake which I think is unfortunate. I happen to really enjoy Timberlake films and in fact I haven't seen one I didn't like. He's come a long way since NSYNC. 

Friends With Benefits came out at the same time as No Strings Attached and both movies have similar plot lines, two friends have meaningless sex but they realize later the love they were trying to avoid inevitably crops up. I enjoyed both films but I think Friends With Benefits is truer to life. It made sex funny and awkward. The friendship was there and believable and the surrounding characters worked to highlight the main relationship rather than pulling focus. And there was an emotional element present in the main characters caused by their parents' absence emotionally as well as physically.  

Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake had good chemistry on screen but they also had good comedic timing together which really worked to sell their relationship. I haven't been a huge fan of Kunis but she made me want to watch more of her stuff with this film. Woody Harrleson was fun in his non-typical role and helped get the comedy across when Timberlake was unable to. It was also a delight to see Jenna Elfman in a film again (I haven't seen her since EdTV with Harrleson). Patricia Clarkson was a bit of a letdown for me but it might have just been her character that I wasn't too fond of (she reminded me too much of my own mother in a bad way). I think her character was good to push Kunis towards Timberlake. I very much enjoyed the cameos of Emma Stone, Andy Samberg, Shaun White, Jason Segal and Masi Oka. They all made the most of the cameos but again didn't take away from the plot. They added a little something extra to the film that made it less flat than it could have been given the overused romantic comedy plot. 

I enjoyed the film overall. The actors were fun to watch, the plot moved forward without too many holes and it was funny. It hit all the marks of a romantic comedy.