No Strings Attached - Grading & Discussion

[Agent Richard07]

Welcome to the grading & discussion thread for No Strings Attached.
[highlight]***SPOILERS AHEAD***[/highlight]

"In this comedy, Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher)
are life-long friends who almost ruin everything by having sex one
morning. In order to protect their friendship, they make a pact to keep
their relationship strictly no strings attached. No strings means no
jealousy, no expectations, no fighting, no flowers, no baby voices.
It means they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, in
whatever public place they want, as long as they don't fall in love.
The questions become - Can you have sex without love getting in the
way? And can their friendship survive?" - MovieWeb

Official Website | Trailer | IMDb Page | Wikipedia Entry
Box Office Mojo Page | Rotten Tomatoes Page​

 

[Agent Richard07]

Yeah, it came out two weeks ago, but I finally got around to seeing this. I'm already a big Natalie Portman fan, but Natalie in a romantic comedy about casual sex? This is something I definately had to see right away. It's not the kind of project you would have seen her in 11 or 12 years ago when her likeability was based mostly on the perception that she was a straight-laced girl who was above all this "sexual stuff". Had this come out back then, her fans would have gone ballistic.

Anyway, I don't have a lot to say about it. You can probably guess where it goes anyway... Girl and guy decide to get together every now and then just for sex, but discover that they can't do so without becoming emotionally involved and end up in an actual relationship. The story is straightforward and it's also a bit on the tame side. At least it's a little more tame than what I was expecting. It's got a sex scene with Natalie, a lot of sexual talk and it touches on the sex lives of late 20-somethings, but it's not overly sexual, nor is it laugh-a-minute or raunchy. Like I said, it's pretty tame. As for the lead characters and performances, Ashton Kutcher was quite good, but Natalie? She came off at times the way Hayden Christensen did in Star Wars. In other words, she couldn't totally pull off everything she needed to and I'm not talking about her underwear.

I loved seeing her in the role anyway. I mean Natalie Portman in a casual sex movie? It was worth it. Plus, her character did have moments where a bit of depth came through. Her character was the one who instigated this whole casual relationship thing and we got to see a little of why she wants it this way and what makes her tick. If you're a Natalie Portman fan, I'd recomend checking this out, otherwise, it's not all that earth-shattering.

Anyone else see this? Anyone?

Anyone plan to see it?

 

[Gaith]

Kutcher, in a role bigger than the five minutes or so Bobby gave him (as a pathetic, eternally stoned hippie), far less a role that involves romancing such beauties as Heigl or Portman:

no can do, pardner.
​

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

So which is better this or the Anne Hathaway/Jake gyllenhal one?

 

[Aragorn]

So which is better this or the Anne Hathaway/Jake gyllenhal one?

You mean the Justin Timberlake/Mila Kunis one coming out later?

 

[Darth_Daver]

I just watched it and laughed my ass off.
It was unbelievably stupid, but that's exactly what I expected.
Gave it an excellent

 

[Darth_Daver]

I just watched it and laughed my ass off.
It was unbelievably stupid, but that's exactly what I expected.
Gave it an excellent