Though self-consciously set in the bicoastal Hollywood axis of New York-Los Angeles, “Friends with Benefits” more properly takes place amid the movie world of romantic comedies. It aims to ditch schmaltz and replace it with snap, the kind found in the classic rom-coms of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn or Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night,” a poster of which hangs above a busy bed in “Friends with Benefits.”
The more modern, saccharine conventions are mocked. Justin Timberlake, playing a magazine art director, parodies the manipulative music of tidy romances. Mila Kunis, as a New York corporate headhunter, goes so far as to, when passing a street poster of “The Ugly Truth,” curse Katherine Heigl.
| On screen |
| ‘Friends with Benefits’ |
| Two and a half stars out of four |
| Starring: Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis |
| Director: Will Gluck |
| Rated: R for sexual content and language |
| Running time: 104 minutes |
This film, directed and co-written by Will Gluck (“Easy A”), is easily superior to its forerunner, “No Strings Attached”, but nevertheless disappoints by eventually falling prey to the very clich?s it strives to upend.
“Friends with Benefits” opens in fine style, with dueling breakups (Emma Stone and Andy Samberg guest as the exes). Dylan (Timberlake) and Jamie (Kunis) then meet when Dylan travels from Los Angeles to New York for a job interview at GQ, arranged by Jamie.
Jamie sells Dylan on transplanting to New York, and the two quickly work up a friendship and great, rapid-fire banter. Each having soured on relationships, they opt for a purely sexual affair. As every audience member knows, their journey from cynicism to genuine romance follows.
“Easy A” was framed as a live webcast with flashbacks and “Friends with Benefits,” too, exudes an ease with technology. Jamie and Dylan’s pact is made not on a Bible, but on a Bible app. Flash mobs make numerous appearances. In a crafty twist, the closing credits run like iPad text, with hands sliding and flicking names.
The problem of being too smart and too suave is there in the cast, too. In Emma Stone, whose star was made in “Easy A,” Gluck had a perfect, Hepburn-like lead for his dialogue, delivered with droll deadpan. Timberlake and Kunis are terrific comic actors, but neither, certainly, is droll.
Each is exceptionally handsome and lively. They look great in bed together and have comic timing to spare. But their dynamic comes off less as chemistry (which suggests some dramatic friction) than as mirror reflections of each other.
Woody Harrelson (as a gay guy’s guy), Patricia Clarkson (as Jamie’s flighty mother) and Richard Jenkins (lending a dose of seriousness as Dylan’s aging father) lead a strong supporting cast.
