Sunday 18 September 2011

Friends with Benefits

The last Will Gluck movie that I reviewed was one called Easy A – with Emma Stone in the lead. It was a decent chick flick which I had rated as an ideal “in-flight” movie and given a 5.5. Gluck seems to be building a lovely niche for himself with little improvement on either the scale or the kind of movie that he is proficient at making. Don’t get me wrong here. Both Easy A and Friends with Benefits (FWB) are highly entertaining movies. But they are just entertainment. Casual fun. Not for the serious watcher of “cinema”. I have always liked this genre of cinema i.e. the RomCom and the Chick Flick. FWB gets added to the list. Gluck sure knows how to make them – easy viewing. What I don’t quite understand is the obsession with Emma Stone (enough to give a bit part as an ex-girl friend) and her name from Easy A being used as a tribute of sorts on one of the boards at the airport. Found that to be a bit over the top from Gluck.
And yes, FWB is quite like No Strings Attached. Man meets woman. Man and woman like each other – a lot. But they want to be friends only. No relationships etc. Man and Woman have both been in relationships before. Both have been unsuccessful at the relationship scene. Both come from family backgrounds which are a bit troubled. Man’s mother left the family over a decade ago. Woman doesn’t know who her father is and has been bought up by a reckless, single mom who cannot remember who the father was either. Both Man and Woman are quite afraid of what a relationship would mean to them and whether it would last at all. But since they like each other enough, the decide to be the crutch the other person needs. Just pure “Friends With Benefits”. But then they hadn’t heard about the age old adage popularized by a certain brand ambassador of Rotomac over 20 years back which said – Ek jawaan ladka aur ek jawaan ladki kabhi dost nahin ho sakte (A young man and a young woman can never be “just friends”). And so the complications start creeping in as always and there are lows in the relationship that take it to a breaking point before a gyan session from the single mother to her daughter and the now single father to his son and the eventual happy ending will keep everyone happy.

What works for FWB is the slick humour thrown in all through the movie. Clean and not slapstick which is quite surprising for a movie from across the Atlantic. Like
Jamie (Kunis) : Why don’t they ever make a movie after the big kiss?
Dylan (Timberlake) : They do. Its called Porn.
Loads of rib tickling one liners make this a movie that is imminently watchable. It is fast paced and has 2 lead actors who I am fast developing a huge liking for. I have always leched at Mila Kunis from her That 70s days and she has only grown into being even more delectable. And yes did I mention that she can act – extremely well? Justin Timberlake is as natural an actor like I have ever seen. He continues with the confidence he showed in Social Network and executes the role of Dylan with aplomb. I liked FWB and would give it a 5.5 on 10 as a movie. But as I said before. It is very very entertaining. Go ahead. You will not regret it.

The trailer can be viewed on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2190056729/

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