Hump Day #63: NO STRINGS ATTACHED

It’s Wednesday, hump day. The week is half over, and the weekend is just around the corner, so what is a dedicated movie watcher to do? In this weekly column, AngieBee makes her suggestions on what movies you should check out to get you through the rest of the week.

PLOT: In this new comedy from director Ivan Reitman, 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?

REVIEW: Ok, so I have been bit of a slacker lately. Been over a month since I posted a new Hump Day column and I’m sorry about that. Let me make it up to you reviewing NO STRINGS ATTACHED.

The premise for this is really simple: Can two adults simply have “no strings attached” sex whenever they like and dodge all the silly complications that comes from love and labels? This sounds simple enough, even great (especially if your a guy), but the problem is that there will always be complications. There will always be a moment when the line where one or both parties involved will cross the line between from being just a “f**k buddy” and being a “girlfriend/boyfriend”. The horror!

Not my normal movie, I know, but I am a sucker for rom-coms and this is a new take on the genre. This thought/premise really intrigued me. I don’t remember friends having “f**k buddies” when I was growing up. It was like this back in my day: You dated, married, had kids and so forth. If you ended up pregnant before being married then rectified that immediately. The idea of just having sex with no strings didn’t exist in the small town of Boiling Springs and if it did I was unaware of it.

The chemistry between Kutcher and Portman is definitely the selling point of the movie. These two play off each other perfectly. I can buy these two having a thing. I also must mention Kevin Kline (Alvin) who plays Adam’s “Hollywood star” dad. Kline almost steals the whole show and his scenes are just hilarious considering he apparently likes his son’s sloppy seconds which, of course, causes problems in he and Adam’s relationship. Very good stuff that I won’t spoil here.

I’ve loved Natalie Portman as an actress for years now, she is amazing in just about all she does. Portman is able to amaze us in dramas such as BLACK SWAN and yet can very easily make you laugh in stuff like YOUR HIGHNESS or NO STRINGS ATTACHED. Portman is just a great actress that doesn’t seem to mind doing movies that other actresses in her place would consider beneath them. If I can have one gripe with her career it is that she needs to do a sequel to LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL. I’d love to see what happened to Mathilda and whether or not she became a hitwoman. Somebody needs to get on this ASAP.

Ashton Kutcher is really good in STRINGS. I think he is much better at the comedy elements rather than the serious stuff. I just get tired of seeing him in camera commercials and tabloids. Even PUNKED got old after awhile. Just let the guy act because when he does, and all those stereotypes and filters are eliminated, Kutcher is pretty good. However, I really have no desire to see him on TWO AND A HALF MEN. That is a Charlie Sheen show and it always will be. I tuned in to see Charlie, 90% of the jokes play off Charlie and without Charlie there is no show. MEN is one of those shows that I can just watch and don’t need to know where I am at season-wise. It doesn’t matter which episode it is and I don’t have to watch them in order, I just know that it will always be funny and Sheen is the main reason why. The studio knew who Charlie was when they hired him. They should have just sucked it up and kept him or ended the show. I hope the “new” show will goes in a blaze of glory. Sorry for the rant, I’m just going to miss one of my favorite fluff shows.

Anyways, NO STRINGS ATTACHED is definitely a raunchier-than-average “chick flick”. The premise is good, the jokes are funny and there isn’t a bad performance in the entire film. What else do you need? The women get some sweet romance and a ton of Kutcher skin, the men get to laugh and get lots of Portman near-nudity. Sounds like a win/win to me.

This movie was really fun to watch. And while I am sure that younger generation probably understands this “no strings” better than I do, this movie sorta proves that maybe the previous generation actually understands relationships better. There will always be strings. Might not be visible at first, but they are there and, before you know it, you’ll end up head first in love. Congratulations!!! You made it, Wednesday is her and there is a long weekend coming up. Happy Labor Day! Just sit back, relax and enjoy the movie.