Friends with Benefits (R16, 109mins) Directed by Will Gluck ***½
When Dylan (Justin Timberlake) first meets Jamie (Mila Kunis) she promises to change his life – but it happens in a way neither of them expected.
Lining up a job interview for him at GQ magazine, the New York-based executive recruiter needs him to take the job, so she can earn her commission. While he mulls over his options, the pair talk the night away on the streets of Gotham and bond over their respective, desperate love lives. He’s been declared “emotionally unavailable”, while she has been described as “emotionally damaged”.
Tired of acting out romantic and relationship clichés, but feeling a need for physical contact, the pair make a pact to have sex “without getting emotions involved” and that way they will always remain friends. Of course, after the initial thrill, it isn’t long before weirdness ensues.
Having reinvigorated the teen comedy with 2010’s excellent Easy A, just a year later, writer-director Will Gluck took on the rom-com to almost equally winning effect.
A mix of Before Sunrise, Down With Love and The Holiday, Friends With Benefits seeks to skewer Hollywood tropes of the genre (which includes showcasing the Jason-Segal-starring film- within-the-film I Love You, I Love New York) as well as homaging classics of the past.
With its central “can men and women ever just have sex?” conceit, you could argue that this is Generation Y’s When Harry Met Sally, while the rat-a-tat dialogue brings back memories of Hepburn and Tracy in their heyday.
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Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake teamed up for Friends With Benefits.
“Why do women think that the only way to get men to do something is manipulation?” opines Dylan.
“History, personal experience, rom-coms,” Jamie replies, without missing a beat.
Clever cross-cut phone calls set the story in motion, and there’s even a hilarious sex scene to rival Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson’s room destroyer in The Tall Guy.
It helps Gluck immensely that he has two leads with easy charm and terrific chemistry. Timberlake proves here that he’s a more than useful actor, while Kunis has superb comic timing.
They are also supported by Patricia Clarkson (Easy A, in another of her typically free-spirited roles), the ever-reliable Richard Jenkins (The Visitor) and a scene-stealing Woody Harrelson (Zombieland) as GQ’s rather camp sports editor. Only a weird cameo by snowboarder Shaun White feels forced and like a mistake.
That’s not to say Friends isn’t without other flaws. The whole New York-versus-Los Angeles running gag will be lost on many international audiences, while the attempts to take the film into slightly more dramatic territory fall a bit flat.
However, those tired of the endless rom-coms for the same era that starred Katherine Heigl, Ginnifer Goodwin or whatever the year’s “it” girl would be well advised to check out this cynical, clever and charismatic comedy.
Friends with Benefits is now available to stream on Netflix.
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