I couldn't get attached with this movie. Too dumb and predictable.

Rating: 5/10 (21 April 2013)

No chemistry at all. There is a hardly any chemistry between the two main characters in this Ivan Reitman's film. Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher). These two actors can act, but this movie should have had two different leading actors who could be more vivid in their acting, like Justin and Mila in "Friends with Benefits" (2011) At least their faces were animated, they had chemistry, and they made the sex scenes very funny and easily watchable. I'm not saying that movie was great, but it's better than this movie. All we get is a bawdy comedy with a slow moving story in here. This movie just makes me depressed about how people view sex and relationships. So casual. So selfish. And we wonder why our culture is riddled with divorce and so many of us suffer from feelings of isolation and low self-worth. After first meeting at a summer camp as teenagers, Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) run into each other a few times when they're young adults but never manage to keep in touch, until Adam find out that his girlfriend was cheating on him with his dad (Kevin Kline). When Adam finds out he gets drunk and starts calling the women in his cell phone directory seeking a hookup with Emma. Emma proposal for a causal relationship or friends with benefits. He warns Emma that she'll fall in love with him, but she dismisses that idea and sets some ground rules to keep what they're doing from becoming too serious. I'm sure that you can guess how the main plot ends. They fall in love, they deny their love, they separate and they get back together. Nothing new added to already predictable rom-com genre besides the role reversal. Girl interested in sex but not commitment. Boy gets attached. Girl breaks up with boy then realizes error of her ways. Boy willingly takes her back. The important criticism is that the storyline is a quilt of ideas are recycled from other rom-com flicks with the use of clichés such as detachment and insecure. If you're in the mood for some boring, obnoxious, pretentious, shallow and tacky people and their petty problems, this is a movie made just for you. I found myself wondering why it was important that these small people, with their small thoughts and small problems should concern anyone. I don't find their love affair interesting nor did watching them help me with my own relationship. This movie is largely revolting for anyone who has any sensibilities about love, sex, and romance. The evident here is that it's not going to be possible to have a purely sexual relationship without any attached feelings, and we go into the story hoping for that redemptive lesson to come through. It finally does, but not until a lot of crude and lewd and nasty dialogue and visuals have taken place. People simply do not behave the way these pretty people all behave. Basically, the premise here is that people jump in and out bed without much, or any, thought and that the jumping is the subject of endless vulgar discussion over cocktails or dinner. Put another way, this film is vulgar nonsense. Nothing wrong with that if it is also entertaining, but really, this film is a clean miss. And when the lesson is learned at the end, it's half-hearted. These two don't belong with each other. The story line is nearly implausible, even for a rom-com. Transition between scenes is poor. Slow and boring. The best scenes are the doughnuts and period CD. The jokes are hit and miss. Off color and gay activity jokes was uncalled for and tasteless. Then there is the sex. The film had little nudity for sex comedy. I guess the R rating was due to the drug references because there sure wasn't any sexual chemistry between the stars. I don't mind it. Natalie Portman is still sexy to me, but if you want something better as far as a sex scene with a much better story then check out 2010 Black Swan. It doesn't have much nudity as well, but the sexuality tension is clearly noticeable in that, unlike here. I think it's because the film use the usual same camera angled sex scenes seen in every similar sex comedy movie. Ashton is pretty much Ashton in the film and doesn't give anything new to the role. Kevin Klein is just an unfunny old bag that indulges in depravity. How not funny. Old people being disgusting is awful. My second celebrity crush in this movie had to be Olivia Thirlby. Overall, it was the same when every other romantic comedy. Predictable dumb. This movie will be in the 1 dollar bin at Wal-Mart sooner than later.