I've been wanting to see this movie from the very first time I watched the trailer. I've been keeping tabs on Mila Kunis since her performance in Black Swan and I was curious to see how she would fare in a rom-com. Justin Timberlake was still teetering on the border for me as to whether or not I thought he was actually a good actor so I was also hoping to see him in action. Friends With Benefits is very similar to the film 'No Strings Attached' starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher earlier in 2011, but much, much better. As you can imagine, Friends With Benefits is about two friends who've just been dumped and miss sex to decide to spice up their relationship by having meaningless sex with strictly physical emotions. Obviously, things don't turn out as they planned as other factors begin to affect both their working and personal lives together. The question is ... what will their relationship be when all this is over?
The plot was brilliant and the balance between 'romance' and comedy was absolute perfection. Although it's pretty obvious how this movie ends, it wasn't one of those annoyingly predictable movies where you spend the entire film wondering when the predictable event would happen. I was perfectly content to wait and see exactly how this movie panned out. There are some down right hilarious moments in this film, but there are also points in which I wanted to cry. Romantic comedies usually come with a lot of stick and rarely are they movies that are actually of a very high standard but this one really was.
2011 seems to have been a good year for Justin Timberlake with the release of three very successful movies: Bad Teacher, Friends With Benefits and In Time. Bad Teacher was a bit of a let down but that was mainly due to a poor plot line so I was a little dubious about how he was going to perform in Friends With Benefits, but he excelled. He was able to display several different emotions and he made the audience laugh, feel sad and take him seriously when necessary - he even got to show off his musical talents with a bit of rapping! I definitely now consider him to be a serious actor and I look forward to all of his future works, be they comedies, romances or action films. Mila Kunis set the bar very high for herself after her role in Black Swan and she too proved that she is not a one trick pony and can also do comedies. She was the same as Justin Timberlake and was able to be sad, happy, funny, serious and sexy all in one movie. She is clearly a very talented actress who will go far, I'm sure. The chemistry between Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis is electric. They work really well together and it's the chemistry between the two that really carried this film forward and made it all the more believable. This film explores relationship issues between men and women, be it friendship or something more which I feel is an issue that a lot of people confusing and so it is easy to relate to. I'd definitely recommend that you buy Friends With Benefits on DVD so that you can watch it again and again and again. It's an incredibly funny and yet moving film that you will never tire of - so really.. it's an investment!
Mila Kunis is one of my major girl crushes at the moment and JT always has a place in my heart haha. Haven't seen this yet but am dying to!
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