Funny but not ground-breaking

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2011)

Just when you thought the rom-com genre had fallen into a predictable pattern, 'Friends with Benefits' comes along to try and subvert this pattern. While it fails to do that, it's still an enjoyable film which isn't as mind-numbingly formulaic as your average rom-com.
Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis play Dylan and Jamie, two emotionally-damaged friends who start having no strings attached sex.
While the film does tread a predictable path, there's enough laughs – especially from Woody Harrelson (as Dylan's gay workmate) and Patricia Clarkson (Jamie's free-spirited mother) – to keep it fresh. There are also some touching moments, such as Dylan's dad's (Richard Jenkins) battle with Alzheimer's. There's even a funny rom-com movie- within-a-movie starring Jason Segel and Rashida Jones, which ticks all the rom-com cliché boxes.
My one biggest gripe of the film is their depiction of Dylan as a (recovered) stutterer. While explained away as a nervous childhood tic which was treated by a speech therapist, it comes back briefly during the helicopter rescue scene, then disappears. It seems to have been included to give Dylan some extra sympathy, but fails. His lack of basic math skills, by contrast, is much funnier.
While FWB isn't able to put the fresh spin on rom-coms that it planned, it's still an enjoyable films which rises above the usual dross this genre serves up.