FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS Review
Sweet, funny, romantic, and not nearly as post-modern as it pretends to be, Friends With Benefits has everything you'd expect from an R-rated romantic comedy in the 21st Century -- but not any more than that. Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake are smoothly convincing as a couple who initially resist their deep-seated attraction to one another, cracking a steady stream of jokes and looking very enticing in their underwear. The supporting cast features the likes of Patricia Clarkson and Richard Jenkins, who always brighten up a movie. And director Will Gluck (Easy A) keeps the action popping until the more serious consequences kick in.
Maybe if Friends With Benefits didn't keep gently mocking the cinematic conventions of romantic comedy, it would have made it easier to look the other way when the film begins to fully embrace those cliches. More so than Gluck's previous two directorial efforts (his first was Fired Up!), the dramatic overtones become more pronounced; the movie begins to take itself too seriously. In the end, after all, Friends With Benefits is just one more flick about men, women, relationships, commitments, and insecurities; the framework is too fragile to support the weight of deep family trauma.
Until it reaches that point, however, the movie soars on a pleasant, nearly plot-less flight. We already know the premise from the title; the tale plays out with jocular flair. Dylan (Timberlake) has made a splash for a successful website in Los Angeles, and is recruited by headhunter Jamie (Kunis) to become the new art director for GQ Magazine in New York. She's his only friend in Manhattan, they start hanging out together, and then, one drunken night, decide to have sex without the commitment of a relationship.
Their scenes together sparkle, whether they're laughingly being more direct in bed with each other than they'd ever dare to be in a committed relationship -- wow, sex can be fun! -- or simply exchanging barbed wisecracks whenever they meet. Manhattan looks like a romantic playground, scrubbed clean and carefully avoiding non-Caucasians in speaking parts, save Jamie, whose ethnic background is given as vaguely "Euro-Asian" by her mother. (Woody Allen would be so proud!)
It's all a contrived fantasy, of course. Dylan only interacts with one other person at GQ, vibrantly gay sports editor Tommy (Woody Harrelson), while Jamie ends up confiding in her flighty mother Lorna (Patricia Clarkson) when she comes for an extended visit. Dylan and Jamie talk about taking the subway, but that's silly. They're both well-paid, they both have huge, photogenic apartments, and we're positive they only take taxis. When Dylan eventually invites Jamie along to meet his family in California, they live in a beautiful home on the beach, of course.
That's where the film takes a more serious turn, with the introduction of Dylan's father (Richard Jenkins) and sister (Jenna Elfman). The drama is ... fine, and well-acted by Jenkins and Elfman, but it's nothing out of the ordinary, and it sucks some of the life out of the movie. Director Gluck also had a hand in writing the script, along with Keith Merryman, David A. Newman, and Harley Peyton, and there continue to be sporadic moments of humor that seek to leaven the heavier scenes. But it starts to feel heavy, and the pace slows down noticeably.
At least Kunis and Timberlake seem to be well-matched, both in their acting levels and with the characters they're playing. That was the biggest problem with the similarly-themed No Strings Attached earlier this year, in which the divine Natalie Portman was forced to make love with Ashton Kutcher, an empty-headed fantasy hunk. Portman was believable as an ambitious woman with emotional baggage; Kutcher was blandly, boringly perfect and added nothing to the part.
Friends With Benefits suggests that Dylan and Jamie both have emotional problems that they need to work through, or learn to deal with better, in order to enjoy a successful relationship. If the drama eventually overcomes the comedy, it doesn't keep the movie from being a lighthearted, sprightly lark for much of its running time, as well as a romantic valentine to the good life in Manhattan and Malibu.
Friends With Benefits opens wide across the U.S. on Friday. Check local listings for showtimes.
