“No Strings Attached,” we have officially given up on you. This writer’s been banging the drum for Liz Meriwether‘s script “Fuckbuddies” for some time now, and despite a retitling, to “No Strings Attached,” the presence of fallen comedy legend Ivan Reitman in the director’s chair and Ashton Kutcher in the male lead, the cast looked promising: Natalie Portman was starring, and normally reliable names like Kevin Kline, Jake Johnson, Greta Gerwig, Mindy Kaling, Ophelia Lovibond and Olivia Thirlby were all involved.
When the disappointing first trailer hit, there was cause for concern, but we tried to convince ourselves that it was simply because the best moments of the very R-rated script couldn’t be shown. With a new red-band trailer hitting overnight, have things been turned around somewhat? Not so much, no.
It’s admittedly something of an improvement, but the added curse words and rear nudity haven’t picked things up nearly as much as we hoped they would. There are moments here that work — drunk Portman is normally fairly good value for money, and, surprisingly, Ludacris looks like he could be the film’s secret weapon, displaying some fairly killer comic timing — but for the most part, this seems looks like a sitcom that’s learned to stand on its back legs and pretend to be a Judd Apatow movie.
There are moments here that are actually kind of embarrassing — the opening exchange between Kutcher and Kline is awful, and displays why Reitman was a terrible choice to helm a script about twentysomething romance. It is, after all, just a trailer, and maybe the finished film will be a surprise, but with the release only two weeks away, we’d say that the summer’s identically-loglined “Friends With Benefits,” from “Easy A” director Will Gluck, with Portman’s “Black Swan” co-star Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, looks like the better bet at this point. We’ll find out the early part of the equation when “No Strings Attached” opens on January 21st. [Trailer Addict]
I don\’t know… that still looks better than it has any right to.
The only reasons to watch this appear to be Jake Johnson and Ludacris.
Giving up on No Strings Attached? Thank God!
Back on June 8, 2006 you guys did a small piece on New Haven based Gorman Bechard\’s indie film Friends (with benefits) that was currently in production. Last year this sexy, funny little indie romantic-comedy played the film festival circuit winning a bunch of \”best of\” awards along the way. While Bechard noted at the time that he didn\’t recall his inspiration what is of note is that his original script was also titled \”F**k Buddies\”.
Please help support the film that came first. Confused or convinced you can watch the film for free on either Babelgum or Fancast and decide for yourselves. Thanks!