Not as "love-less" as I expected, in fact a pretty good story.

Rating: Null/10 (10 January 2012)

I have a friend, a 50-ish lady, who not long ago described her relationship with a certain man as "we are friends, with benefits." Honestly I had never heard it described that way, but she explained it. Then this movie came out and I was leery. But then we saw it, and both my wife and I thought it is pretty good. The dialog is snappy and rings true, and the two leads are quite good and convincing.
Justin Timberlake is Dylan Harper, a hot-shot West Coast editor on a web-based publication, and gets offered an interview trip to New York, for the job as editor for GQ Magazine. He says he is just going for the trip, but things develop.
Mila Kunis is the headhunter, Jamie Rellis. She meets him at the airport, and when he balks at considering the job she tells him, "I am not going to try to sell you on the job, I'm going to sell you on New York." She succeeds, he moves to the City, the two of them are naturally relaxed and fun together, and become best friends.
Then, just bantering one day one of them suggests, why go without sex while we are both between relationships, let's just do it, with no strings attached, and it will be like playing tennis. When it is over we shake hands and say see you around.
Of course if that had worked then there wouldn't be much of a movie past that point. It gets romantically complicated when they both begin to have deeper feelings for each other and at the same time deny those feelings.
Three other characters add greatly to the enjoyment of the movie. Patricia Clarkson is Jamie's wild and loose mother, who shows up without notice, and at least once Jamie and Dylan are in bed, naked when she walks in.
Old reliable Richard Jenkins is Dylan's dad, with early onset of dementia. Sometimes he just takes off his pants, in public, because he gets tired of wearing them. But in the end he gives his son the key advice, if you think she even might be the one, go after her. Life is short.
And Woody Harrelson is Tommy Bollinger, the openly gay sports editor. He plays the part perfectly.
A fun, entertaining movie, but for adults.