Overly cliché and laboured

Rating: 4/10 (30 June 2012)

After another failed relationship high-rolling blog entrepreneur Dylan Harper (Justin Timberlake) and head-hunter Jamie Rellis (Mila Kunis) decide to forfeit on love and commitments. Per chance Jamie headhunts the LA settled Dylan to become the chief editor of GQ monthly, the New York. On his arrival to the Big Apple the two hitch onto their instant connection, chatting through the days and wise-cracking on the same wave-length. Not wanting to dissolve the friendship, but at the same time in the midst of an ongoing sex-drought, the two decide to enter an understanding: Just sex. No strings attached. What happens from then on is... pretty anticipatable. At first things are perfectly fine, but then an epiphany or two changes the state of affairs into something less raunchy and more heartwarming.
Romantic comedies are essentially my guilty pleasure (psst... don't pass the word around), often intaking a few to lessen the intensity levels following more ambitious cinema. Despite being able to fill in the dots several scenes ahead, they do offer a certain respite and touch the less cynical side of a human being. However cliché and stereotypical the two leads or predictable the outcome, the key issue is proper chemistry and some honest laughs. Unfortunately "Friends with Benefits" offers two mildly intriguing characters with pet peeves and supposedly cute idiosyncrasies, who are provided with well-meant, but laboured, dialogue. They end up attempting to talk there way into the viewer's sympathy with mildly entertaining punchlines, forced deliveries reeking of pretentiousness or mistimed comedic flow. Even worse some of the ideas spun into the move are outdated (like the whole flash mob concept) and just don't help to build the character's credibility.
The best thing in the movie is Dylan's father (played by Richard Jenkins), an Alzheimer afflicted heart-warming character, which single-handedly manages to instill a sense of honesty to the end resolution, despite all the dismembered emotionality of preceding events. Unfortunately for the lead cast the show is basically stolen by supporting actors with Jamie Clarkson as Jamie's hippie sex crazed mom and Woody Harrelson as a gay sports editor stealing all of the thunder whenever on screen.