Friends with Benefits

Starring Mila Kunis and Jusin Timberlake, it's about friends with benefits, and if you don't know how this one ends, you don't watch enough movies. Surprise! They fall in love. I know this sounds eerily familiar to a movie I watched back in April called No Strings Attached, and believe me, I had to take a minute and make sure I had the titles right. No Strings attached was the one with Aston Kutcher and Natalie Portman, this one has Mila and Justin.

Maybe it's just one of the serendipities of the world two movies with similar plots come out in the same year, perhaps it is just "bound to happen". It happened a few years back when two movies came out about Turman Capote in the same year. One was called Infamous, and starred Sandra Bullock and Toby Jones, the other, Capote, was much more successful and starred Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I've wondered this more than once: did anyone know they were making a similar movie? Would they have waited if they did? Would all the actors still want the role, knowing they would be endlessly compared?

And I know that anyone who knows movies knows the extra added weirdness of this all is that the two female leads in each sex-buddies movies just starred in a big movie together (Back Swan) Coincidence?!?! I have no idea.

Anyways, like the Capote battle, I do believe there is a clear winner between Friends with Benefits and No Strings Attached. And that would be the former. Justin and Mila have great chemistry, the dialogue is fast and clever, and they try to acknowledge rom com cliches. Woody Harrelson's character as the gay coworker is pretty one-note, but it's a funny one. Things start to get a little confusing when their relationship does after Justin takes Mila to LA. The big emotional issues come out of nowhere, even though they have been talking about them all throughout the movie, but we never really understand until them. Sort of...? Also, I get that Mila and Justin both have amazing bodies, but it seemed a little gratuitous at times. Does she always get dressed while answering the phone?

All in all, a fun movie, and Justin and Mila are a great combo.