Friends with Benefits

Rating:

Romantic-comedies have become such a static routine in Hollywood that even the two lead characters in “Friends with Benefits” have memorized its blueprint. Earlier scenes present us with mild optimism when we learn that our impending couple is considerably aware of the genre’s most common clichés. But their advantage leads to no benefit when they go right ahead and implement the things they were formerly trying to rebuke.

By the movie’s unsatisfying end, we get the feeling that the purpose of the references was to inform us that what we are watching is no different from the rest of its pack. Instead of utilizing its awareness as a stepping stone for improvement, “Friends with Benefits” lingers in mediocrity by idly pre-apologizing to the faults it plans to commit. What’s the point?

Ashton Kutcher Katherine Heigl

What the movie lacks in screenplay is made up for in its cast. Reader, you have no idea how refreshed I was to see a rom-com that isn’t starring either Katherine Heigl or Ashton Kutcher. These two actors have spent so much time within the territory of their preferred genre that their careers have gone from complacent to comatose.  Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher are to romantic comedies as Milla Jovovich and Jason Statham are to action movies. A personal note of mine that may also come in handy in your future is this: Movies starring Heigl or Kutcher must be so bad that only Heigl and Kutcher and would agree to star in them.

Anyway. “Friends with Benefits” features real actors; some are mature and distinguished, like Richard Jenkins and Woody Harrelson, while others are young and growing, like Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. The latter two stars I mentioned have recently taken on serious roles that have established themselves as capable actors. Here, they play characters that are part stereotypes, part marketing campaigns. As you may already know, the apparently recyclable plot of “Friends with Benefits” requires frequent sexual activities, meaning that Timberlake and Kunis will have to bare a lot of skin. (The previous sentence may have just sold a few DVDs.) Would it be wrong to think that the makers are more interested in their looks than their talents?

Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake

Though restrained by a weak script, Timberlake and Kunis do what they can to lift the movie. When the plot pauses, the scenes between them are joyous and snappy. We enjoy their goofy and honest friendship, which is why we frown when the genre interrupts the fun by telling them that it’s time to fall in love. We’re not at all surprised to see the final minutes unfold inside an airport terminal and a train station. I shall rejoice in the day I see my first romantic-comedy that will end somewhere different like, say, Antarctica, or Mars.

“Friends with Benefits” is not necessarily a bad movie, but it is a movie that we don’t need to see. Because if we lend our support to them, greedy Hollywood executives will have no other choice but to repeat the same event under a different title. Last year, we were cursed with the successful “Valentine’s Day”. Later this year, we will have the oddly similar “New Year’s Eve”, a romantic comedy starring both Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher.