The entertainment benefit is large in this fine film; however, the landscape of the romcom is changing and some will not like it

Rating: Null/10 (3 August 2011)

Dylan (Justin Timberlake) is a dot.com designer living in the City of Angels near his ailing father (Richard Jenkins) and his sister, Annie (Jenna Elfman) and her young son. However, he is so talented at his job that he is soon "head-hunted" by Jamie (Mila Kunis) to work for GQ magazine in New York. If Jamie can persuade Dylan to take the job, she will get a big bonus. For his part, Dylan has to be sold because he loves the west coast. But, Jamie does her recruiting well and convinces Dylan to make the change. Very soon, the two of them realize a growing attraction but since both have them have had past romantic difficulties, especially Jamie, they decide on the ground rules. There will be no commitments or expressions of love, in their future relationship, only a friendship with sexual benefits. Things get more complicated when Jamie's ditzy mother (Patricia Clarkson) comes back to stay with Jamie and Dylan's father's dementia gets worse. When Jamie goes along with Dylan on a holiday trip to Los Angeles, the future of their pact seems in danger of changing. Will they stay together or will they call it quits? This is an entertaining romcom with likable characters, nice scenery, great costumes, and good acting. Timberlake is especially surprising in his acting ability, my view, for music is surely his main pursuit. Kunis also does a good job while Clarkson, Jenkins, Elfman and all of the others are fine, too. Special praise should go to Woody Harrelson, who plays a gay colleague of Dylan's, as he does terrific work in a difficult role. So, that's that. However, this film is a far cry from the days of Pillow Talk and such. It has many explicit sexual scenes and travels a quite different path to a "true love conquers all" conclusion. In my opinion, this is so because Hollywood is changing the romcom rules to appease male viewers who are dragged to date night films they hate. So, in place of action, there's plenty of sex. Some viewers will understand this, like me, but will still have a hard time accepting it. Therefore, those fans who prefer lighter, "cleaner" romantic comedy will probably have to turn to Hallmark instead of Hollywood, if this film is an example of the "future world" of light romance. I hope its not so.