Portman is great, the rest not so much

Rating: Null/10 (2 May 2011)

In this comedy, Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) are life-long friends who almost ruin everything by having sex one morning. In order to protect their friendship, they make a pact to keep their relationship strictly "no strings attached." "No strings" means no jealousy, no expectations, no fighting, no flowers, no baby voices. It means they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, in whatever public place they want, as long as they don't fall in love. The questions become - Can you have sex without love getting in the way? And can their friendship survive?
Now, let me start this by saying that I'm a huge fan of Natalie Portman. She's, in my opinion, the best actress out there, by a long shot. Every film she's in is that much better because of her and she has given some amazing performances throughout her career. Suffice to say I have seen everything she has done so far and felt obliged to watch No Strings Attached as well. However, I had really low expectations for this film. Let's be honest, comedies usually suck, let alone romantic comedies starring Ashton Kutcher. Honestly, I was entertained by the film but it's your run of the mill rom-com. The plot is extremely predictable, the jokes for the most part are silly, childish and not clever at all, and the film uses the same formula of every comedy that has come from Hollywood in the last decade. There's even the goofy sidekick to provide comic relief.
Regarding the acting I thought Kutcher did an OK job but he never truly gives himself into the character. In short he was a bit wooden. Portman on the other hand, can do no wrong. I think the reason why I was able to somewhat enjoy the film was definitely her presence and with any other actress this film would have been much worse. All in all, it's a formulaic rom-com that benefits from one of its lead actors but it's still a very weak effort.
6.5/10