a ho-hum collection of uninspired romance

Rating: 5/10 (30 January 2013)

Dylan (Timberlake) and Jamie (Kunis) meet when the former is on a trip to New York for a job interview. The two become friends, and after a cozy night on the bench, they decide to experiment with having a sex-only affair, i.e. to be 'friends with benefits'. At first this doesn't end well for both of them....
Despite the good title, the contents of this film are disappointing. For a romantic comedy the bear essence of the plot has potential, especially for the younger crowd. However, this only holds up the first half hour, after which it falls into a highly predictable string of poorly written scenes with overly cliché dialog. The lead actors, Timberlake and Kunis, are presumably only cast for their appearance, because they don't fit their role very well in terms of acting. The spark just isn't there. The rare interesting and/or funny scenes mainly involved the supporting cast, i.e. Woody Harrelson, Patricia Clarkson and Richard Jenkins, who make this film just slightly more memorable.
Kunis' mesmerizing eyes lured me to go watch this film. However, despite her stunning bodily appearance, it didn't stop me from feeling rather bored.
5/10