Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Justin Timberlake
Mila Kunis
Woody Harrelson
Shaun White
Directed By:
Will Gluck
For a while now, I've been saying that Justin Timberlake should get into movies. He's a natural with the cameras and as he's FINALLY entering adulthood, it's the next logical step to solidify his career. Moving on up from teenagers and young adults to the full spectrum of the Occidental-Female audience. When I saw the poster for FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, where he stars alongside the beautiful Jackie Burkhart Mila Kunis, I have to admit I got curious and I didn't argue at all when Josie asked to watch it with me, even if it's a rom-com. Should have I read the reviews before? I don't know. Truth is, FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS is very competent at what it does, but I couldn't help but feeling my soul rot while watching it. It's not my place to worry about the anal integrity of viewers, but I can't help thinking that if anybody applies the "if-it-works-in-the-movies-I-can-do-it-too" logic to this film, they are in for a nervous breakdown and a suicide attempt before they turn thirty.
Mr. Sexy-Back Timberlake camps the role of Dylan Harper, a self-made internet man from Los Angeles who just got dumped by his girlfriend for being "emotionally unavailable and Mila Kunis is Jamie, a young headhunter from New York City who just got dumped by her boyfriend for being "emotionally damaged" and because she has big, creepy eyes*. You know where this is going (well, you're supposed to, it's a rom-com). Jamie finds Dylan's web site on the web while on a job to find an art director for GQ Magazine. She invites him over, they become friends, they end up having rabid sex together**, but since they are REALLY emotionally unavailable and emotionally damaged, they're playing a dangerous game. They're being too fucking cute towards each other and the tension in between them is building up. Standard stuff again, but Justin and Mila have a great chemistry together and keep things afloat. Whenever they're on screen, they are funny and too cute for their own good together.
The cast is not to blame for anything. The writing is. Movies like rom-com are supposed to make you dream and dreams are the vector that are supposed to help you transcend your condition and aspire to a better life. Well, FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS won't lead you anywhere, because nothing in this movie even remotely resembles real life. You're not handled art director jobs for GQ with a kick-ass New York apartment before you get gray hair and a gut. Especially not by a young and sexy girl with emotional damage. Head hunters are these burly men with mustaches and if you ever see a young and sexy girl in that role, she's a) head hunting for an minor outsourcing IT company or b) she's a rich daddy's girl and she's way not as fun as Jamie is in the movie. She will be snobbish, snooty and will marry an extremely rich man. Am I being cynical here? Maybe, but what I'm talking about here is real life. FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS is a seducing vision, but it has nothing to do with how the publishing business, New York City or even relationships work.
All right, let me turn my cynicism back off***. It's kind of a witty commentary about romance movies. They are watching romantic movies and discussing them as their romance unfolds and make use of clichés in their relationship, ultimately to seduce each other. Noticeably a very funny running gag with the time-transcending horrible rock song CLOSING TIME. You get to the same friggin' place. "You can have your own romance story" says FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, but the story they show just doesn't exist. It has no resonance with real life, which is too bad because the problematic of fuck-friends isn't the most discussed in Hollywood movies and it was an original premise. The worst part? The Go-Get-Your-Girl-Back father figure monologue delivered by Dylan's Alzheimer-ridden dad (Richard Jenkins) , which I heard in about a gazillion other movies (Mallrats would be one) before. Yeah Justin and Mila are good. They are a well-matched pair and their feelings seems believable. They try their best to keep the movie light and entertaining, but it's so weighted down by its own hyperreality. FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS is witty, but unfortunately it's just another one of those stereotypical rom-coms about things that sells something that doesn't exist.
SCORE: 47%
Recommendation: I don't know, watch it drunk? I watched THE WATERBOY with Adam Sandler, drunk. Not the same movie
* I think that boyfriend-guy is the only man I ever heard complain about Mila Kunis' eyes.
** Multiple times.
*** Well, not completely
Mr. Sexy-Back Timberlake camps the role of Dylan Harper, a self-made internet man from Los Angeles who just got dumped by his girlfriend for being "emotionally unavailable and Mila Kunis is Jamie, a young headhunter from New York City who just got dumped by her boyfriend for being "emotionally damaged" and because she has big, creepy eyes*. You know where this is going (well, you're supposed to, it's a rom-com). Jamie finds Dylan's web site on the web while on a job to find an art director for GQ Magazine. She invites him over, they become friends, they end up having rabid sex together**, but since they are REALLY emotionally unavailable and emotionally damaged, they're playing a dangerous game. They're being too fucking cute towards each other and the tension in between them is building up. Standard stuff again, but Justin and Mila have a great chemistry together and keep things afloat. Whenever they're on screen, they are funny and too cute for their own good together.
The cast is not to blame for anything. The writing is. Movies like rom-com are supposed to make you dream and dreams are the vector that are supposed to help you transcend your condition and aspire to a better life. Well, FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS won't lead you anywhere, because nothing in this movie even remotely resembles real life. You're not handled art director jobs for GQ with a kick-ass New York apartment before you get gray hair and a gut. Especially not by a young and sexy girl with emotional damage. Head hunters are these burly men with mustaches and if you ever see a young and sexy girl in that role, she's a) head hunting for an minor outsourcing IT company or b) she's a rich daddy's girl and she's way not as fun as Jamie is in the movie. She will be snobbish, snooty and will marry an extremely rich man. Am I being cynical here? Maybe, but what I'm talking about here is real life. FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS is a seducing vision, but it has nothing to do with how the publishing business, New York City or even relationships work.
All right, let me turn my cynicism back off***. It's kind of a witty commentary about romance movies. They are watching romantic movies and discussing them as their romance unfolds and make use of clichés in their relationship, ultimately to seduce each other. Noticeably a very funny running gag with the time-transcending horrible rock song CLOSING TIME. You get to the same friggin' place. "You can have your own romance story" says FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, but the story they show just doesn't exist. It has no resonance with real life, which is too bad because the problematic of fuck-friends isn't the most discussed in Hollywood movies and it was an original premise. The worst part? The Go-Get-Your-Girl-Back father figure monologue delivered by Dylan's Alzheimer-ridden dad (Richard Jenkins) , which I heard in about a gazillion other movies (Mallrats would be one) before. Yeah Justin and Mila are good. They are a well-matched pair and their feelings seems believable. They try their best to keep the movie light and entertaining, but it's so weighted down by its own hyperreality. FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS is witty, but unfortunately it's just another one of those stereotypical rom-coms about things that sells something that doesn't exist.
SCORE: 47%
Recommendation: I don't know, watch it drunk? I watched THE WATERBOY with Adam Sandler, drunk. Not the same movie
* I think that boyfriend-guy is the only man I ever heard complain about Mila Kunis' eyes.
** Multiple times.
*** Well, not completely
