Portman is an absolute joy

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2016)

It is interesting, to this reviewer, how the IMDb membership tends to sometimes voice concerns that the mainstream reviewers miss or overlook.
The mainstream critics (which you check for yourself, link on the title for this film) either felt that the script worked and produced an entertaining movie -- or that the script failed, and the movie lacked punch.
Almost universally, however, Ms. Portman's performance was praised. Some felt, in fact, that it carried the entire movie (Kutcher's career, like that former romantic lead Freddie Prinze, tends to veer more toward "straight man" ie, as merely the "sparkplug" for whomever he is playing against.) Here on IMDb however I find reviews that go further than the mainstream critics, and actually seemed annoyed at Ms. Portman for taking the role in the first place...? As if the role (or the movie, or the script) was beneath her? In the opinion of this reviewer, Ms. Portman 'is' the movie. The script is OK -- perhaps with some excellent moments here and there, both verbal and slapstick -- and the co-stars are also merely OK.
But it is the comic timing and willingness of Ms. Portman to throw herself 100% into such an initially weak character ... and the make that character stronger and more interesting than the scriptwriter ever imagined. This is what carries the film, and this is what holds it together and makes it work.
I will add to this review the same remark I penned recently in another review of a so-called "High Concept" Hollywood comedy -- Ghost Town 2008 --- namely that, at the end of the day, when this film goes into the great digital archive and becomes available to viewers of the future (as in, two generations from now or more), the sneers from today's viewers will fade away and be replaced by the observation that, like Tea Leoni, Ms. Portman simply did not do enough films to satisfy her fans.