No substance attached!

Rating: 5/10 (10 March 2011)

'NO STRINGS ATTACHED': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Recent Oscar winner Natalie Portman stars in this raunchy rom-com about a couple of friends who decide to have a casual sexual relationship with 'no strings attached' in hopes it doesn't ruin their friendship. It co-stars the horribly miscast Ashton Kutcher in the male lead role and a handful of other minor celebrities in minor roles (like Kevin Kline and Cary Elwes). It's written by Elizabeth Meriwether and Michael Samonek and directed by Ivan Reitman (of 'GHOST BUSTERS', 'STRIPES', 'MEATBALLS' and 'TWINS' fame). The material is obviously beneath Reitman and it's odd that he would be interested in directing a film like this (although he is getting old). What's more unsettling is that Natalie Portman was interested in doing a film like this. Sure it's a hit at the box office and I'm sure she got a big paycheck but she usually sticks to more artistic fare or at least films with more substance than mediocre crap like this.
Portman plays a hospital resident named Emma who is afraid of commitment or any type of real reltaionship. Kutcher plays an aspiring film writer named Adam who's working as an assistant on a popular teen musical TV show. Adam's most recent girlfriend dumped him and started dating his father (Kline). Emma and Adam met as children and kept running into each other randomly throughout the course of their lives, every several years. One morning they decide to sleep together and Emma immediately enforces the rules that if they keep doing it, that's all it will ever be. As this goes on Adam keeps wanting more and things get complicated.
Portman's Emma character is pretty abusive to Kutcher's Adam and I think if the sex of the characters had been reversed this movie would not have gone over so well and have been seen as sexist. It's a new day and age though and the movie is primarily written by a woman from a woman's point of view. Even so the movie is mostly fluff and for the most part pretty poorly written. Reitman's directing does little to improve anything as well and is pretty uninspired. Kutcher is horrible as usual and brings the movie down even further. He should stick to supporting comedic roles because he's proved time and time again that he has no leading man acting chops. The chemistry between he and Portman is pretty bad as well and almost nonexistent. I keep wondering how the film might have turned out if they had cast a Jake Gyllenhaal or Shia LaBeouf. The material isn't good enough to warrant their involvement though and it's certainly beneath Portman. She's found her new status as Hollywood's most popular leading lady but just because she's holding a position once held by Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock it doesn't mean she has to act like them. She's much better than that. She does do a decent acting job in the film none the less and looks breathtakingly beautiful (more so than possibly ever before). So if you're as big a fan of Natalie Portman as I am it's worth seeing just for that. Mostly a waste though.
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