Swanner: Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman star in this new romantic comedy about two people sure that a relationship strictly based on sex is the perfect relationship. Of course someone starts falling in love and so our conflict begins. Director Ivan Reitman has produced a very sweet “adult” love story that I found really refreshing. It’s nice watching a romantic comedy that’s not meant to be a “family” film.
Judd: I hate romcoms. A January romcom is hell on celluloid. However, I will admit that No Strings Attached was better than I expected. That’s not to say that I thought it was good, just … better. I thought it was two dimensional, paint-by-numbers, sitcom-y and mildly funny at best. The adult humor consisted of “awkward moments” that weren’t all that awkward and marijuana humor – which may be shocking in somewhere like Wisconsin, but here in the Green Belt, it’s not even worth noticing.
Swanner: Well I love romcoms and this is a good one. It’s not the best one ever made but it was refreshing and the cast was all very likeable. I think the only real stumbling block was the script by Elizabeth Meriwether and Michael Samonek. They have fleshed out the two leads pretty nicely but they have added so many secondary characters that most of them are just included to say something funny or to give a humorous reaction. It still works well but I think that a bit more depth would have made it richer.
Judd: More depth? How about any depth! X shows up so Y can happen. That’s it. That was the total depth of every supporting character. In fact, I wouldn’t even call them characters, they were plot devices. And it’s a shame because supporting cast was excellent. Kevin Kline, Lake Bell, Mindy Kaling have some serious comedic chops, and the movie treated them like no name extras.
Swanner: True, but it still worked. Their scenes are quick in and quick out but while they were on screen they were put to good use. I thought the show was funny and entertaining and I didn’t go to the screening expecting that. One side note for Chelsea Lately fans, Guy Branum does play one of Natalie Portman’s roommates and he’s very funny.
Judd: I’ll pay it one more compliment by saying that it wasn’t completely phoned in and it was better than some of the horrible romantic comedies we’ve seen, but it was by no means good or worth the price of admission.
Swanner: ½
Judd: ½