It's cute, it's just not cute enough.

Rating: 5/10 (14 July 2011)

In the film, Ashton Kutcher plays Adam, a stand by assistant for a TV show who, after finding out his dad is dating his ex-girlfriend, calls up all the women on his phone until someone agrees to sleep with him. The next day, he passes out naked on the couch in a home of his once Summer camp friend Emma (Played by Natalie Portman). She's a medical resident in L.A. who's overly frightened of the concept of a real relationship. Together, the two of them create a system for themselves to use each other for sex at any time, until one of them falls for each other.
I wanted to like No Strings Attached more than I actually did. It's not terrible, but I really think there was so much untapped potential. First problem with the film is the script and tone. The film can't decide whether it wants to be a serious romance, or a silly, sometimes raunchy Rom-Com. The serious bits are probably the more interesting, but the film just flip flops from charming to dull too often.
The only real glimmer of hope is Natalie Portman. Emma is not that well written a character, but someone as energetic and charismatic as Portman brings full enjoyability out of it. It's hard to keep your eyes off of her in any scene she's in. However, despite moments of sentimental chemistry between her and Kutcher, the romance feels contrived, and not much of the other cast are that great. Even talents like Kevin Kline and Olivia Thirlby can't bring much out of their inconsistently written characters.
Overall, No Strings Attached is not that great, but as a date night popcorn flick... you're still probably better off choosing something else.
I give it ** out of ****