No Strings Attached

Ivan Reitman

The story: Emma (Natalie Portman), a doctor, and Adam (Ashton Kutcher), who works on a television show, are long-time acquaintances. When they find themselves living in the same city, they tumble into a no-strings-attached sexual relationship. Things are hunky-dory for a while until Adam decides that he wants something more.

Can relationships that start off being only about sex turn into something deeper?

There is certainly a spate of movies eager to explore that question. First was Love And Other Drugs (2011) with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, No Strings Attached stars Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher and the upcoming Friends With Benefits has Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis.

Apart from featuring hot actors and actresses and tantalising poster artwork, they also have one other thing in common – they are all romantic comedies. And the moment they are tagged as that, there is never any doubt about where the film is headed.

These romcoms want it both ways, to burnish their credibility by taking on an aren’t-we-cool “edgy” topic and yet they don’t want to alienate their intended audience by getting their hands dirty with the portrayal of purely casual sex.

Which is another way of saying that despite the saucy set-ups, a romcom is a romcom is a romcom.

Portman and Kutcher are both likable actors and they are quite sweet as a couple. This was presumably a breeze to shoot for her after the intense Black Swan and it certainly speaks for her acting range.

Kutcher, though, sometimes seems to be still riffing on that goofball persona from the TV sitcom, That ’70s Show.

The twist here is that it is his character, rather than the woman, who wants something beyond sex, a situation which prompts an outraged outburst from his male friend.

Unfortunately, that is as smart as the script gets. Emma is dismissively described as having an “emotional peanut allergy”, which is not a satisfactory explanation for why she is so resistant to commitment.

It can be rather frustrating to watch the film at times as one keeps wishing that Portman and Kutcher had stronger material to work with rather than the lacklustre screenplay by Elizabeth Meriwether.

It made me want to emulate Homer Simpson when he pounded on a television set and yelled: Be funnier.

(ST)