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Movie Review: “No Strings Attached”

No Strings Attached

Rating: R for sexual content, language and some drug material

Length: 108 minutes

Release Date: January 21, 2011

Directed by: Ivan Reitman

Genre: Comedy/Romance

No Strings Attached” is a romantic comedy that stars Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman. The director of “No Strings Attached” is Ivan Reitman, who is also the producer. This film is based on an original screenplay written by American playwright Elizabeth Meriwether.

Emma Kurtzman (Natalie Portman) and Ashton Kutcher (Adam Franklin) initially meet as teenagers at summer camp. They run into each other occasionally, but never stay in touch. Emma becomes a resident at a hospital in Los Angeles while Adam becomes a production assistant for a television show. Adam gets drunk one night when his father (Kevin Kline) starts dating Vanessa (Ophelia Lovibond), Adam’s ex-girlfriend.

Adam starts calling women on his phone list, including Emma. He wakes up the next day in Emma’s apartment, which she shares with Patrice (Greta Gerwig). Emma and Adam look for his pants and end up having sex. Emma believes that no couple will be together forever, so she establishes some rules before their relationship gets too serious.

This arrangement works well at first until Emma begins dating Sam (Ben Lawson), a doctor who works at her hospital. Adam becomes jealous and begins giving gifts to Emma, which she rejects. Things get worse for Adam when his father announces at a dinner that Vanessa is pregnant with his child. Emma feels sorry for Adam and eventually goes on a date with him. However, she gets angry when Adam says he loves her and tells him he should start seeing a woman who won’t hurt him.

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Adam and Emma stop seeing each other and Adam receives an offer for a steady writing job six weeks later. Lucy (Lake Bell) is an assistant on Adam’s show who is attracted to him and helps get Adam the job. Adam and Lucy also start seeing each other socially. Meanwhile, Emma has become distraught over not seeing Adam and calls him to get back together. Adam rejects her advances, so Emma drives to his house to find Adam with Lucy. Emma drives off in tears.

The relationships between Emma, Adam, their friends and family members continue to become more complicated. Emma and Adam eventually discover that their relationship is the most stable of these, and they decide to become a committed couple.

The main premise of the film is a couple attempting to maintain a strictly sexual relationship without falling in love. However, it reverses the usual gender roles for this premise. Emma only wants a sexual relationship without any emotional attachments, while Adam is searching for a deeper relationship and inevitably falls in love with Emma.

The film clearly shows that friends can’t have sex while remaining friends. This answer will have the greatest appeal for young couples on a date, while “No Strings Attached” will remind older audience members of a lighter version of “Last Tango in Paris.”

Emma is certainly smart and attractive, but she is also abrasive. The reasons for Adam’s initial attraction to Emma are therefore not always clear. Adam shows a dedicated infatuation in the early part of their relationship that overlooks Emma’s many faults.

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“No Strings Attached” has two distinctly different tones. The early scenes are characterized by bawdy humor as Adam and Emma wake up in her apartment and quickly decide to have sex. They exchange snappy one-liners filled with sexual innuendo provide the basis for the first part of the film.

The film takes a more serious turn when Adam decides he wants more than casual sex and Emma can’t figure out what she wants at first. Adam’s character becomes more dominant as he begins dating another woman and Emma begins to develop stronger feelings for Adam. The flighty, superficial relationships of the other people in their lives stands in contrast to the deepening relationship between Adam and Emma.

No Strings Attached” is Natalie Portman’s second consecutive film to be laden with angst, after “Black Swan.” The characters of Nina Sayers and Emma Kurtzman are otherwise dissimilar, although she plays both parts quite capably. Nina Sayers has a tenuous hold on reality and eventually succumbs to madness, while Emma is well-grounded. Emma’s reasons for avoiding emotional commitments are never made completely clear in the film, although she does provide a few hints.

Kutcher’s character is charming, but it is a less demanding role than Portman’s. Kline’s role as an aging celebrity with a giant ego is a small one, although it does show his comedic timing to good effect.

Rating 3 out of 5