A formula that works

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2013)

Friends With Benefits is a genre film and it isn't ashamed of it. It uses every cliché in the book and it uses them to full effect, better than any rom-com I've seen in ages. In an age where the classic rom-com is all but dead, when hipsterish films like (500) Days of Summer subvert every rule of the genre to hell and back for the sake of being edgy and subversive, Friends With Benefits is just self-aware and subversive enough to feel like it was made in 2011 and not twenty years earlier, but even if they make a snarky remark while doing it about the lack of realism in this sort of film, they still do everything you know - and hope - they will. The amazing thing is, it works. This comedy inspires true catharsis in the viewer and reminds us all why these clichés and rules were created in the first place - long before the genre turned into the bad, sticky joke that it is.
A lot of the credit should go to the cast, of course; because a film like this could never work if you're not rooting for the two leads to end up together. Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, it should be noted, are not in any way great actors. When each one is alone on the screen, they fail to impress, and when they interact with any member of the excellent supporting cast - Richard Jenkins, Woody Harrelson, Patricia Clarkson and even Emma Stone - Kunis and Timberlake are always the less interesting and less magnetic half of the scene. And yet - when they're together, they have an incredible and natural chemistry, one that only the great couples of the silver screen could ever achieve, and they make even the sex scenes, that could have been awkward with other actors, feel natural and pleasant. They makes for a real and likable couple that you want to root for, even relate to, so much so that you can set aside your cynicism and forget that the scenario would have been very different with two people who, well, don't look like Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake.
Most of all, though, it's the screenplay that makes Friends With Benefits work against all odds. It shows real wit and understanding of the characters' age-group, and doesn't try too hard to be hip and modern that it alienates the viewers and the actors. It's radiant with love for New York City, turning it into as major a player in the story as the lead characters, giving the story a strong sense of location and reality. Most impressive of all is the dialog during the sex scenes, which is more candid, realistic and hilarious than you would ever expect from a rom-com. Where other films would stop short when these scenes and fade to black and blast up the music, Friends With Benefits doesn't really show what people having sex look like - it's still a mainstream American comedy, after all - but it does show us how they act, and it's extremely accurate, avoiding any manner of idealization or romanticization and as a result is very relatable and as a result, very funny.
I'm a heterosexual male. I don't, by definition, like romantic comedies. But I liked this one. I understood where the story was going about ten minutes in, I knew exactly what the characters were going to do, but I'll be damned if I didn't really want them to do it. And I enjoyed it all the while. Friends With Benefits won't change the world, it's highly likely that I won't remember it two years from now. But if, ten years from now, it'll pop up on TV, it'll jog a pleasant memory, and I'll watch it all over again. And it'll be two hours I'm sure to enjoy.