Film: Friends With Benefits (Will Gluck, 2011)

I find that with every chick flick I see I invariably compare it to Bridget Jones (the original movie, not the shitty sequel). That was a film that managed to be an unashamed chick flick but somehow managed to elevate itself above the norm by being both charming and utterly hilarious whilst nailing the tone of the romance to avoid on-the-nose schmaltz, a trapping for about 99% of all romantics comedies.

Friends With Benefits has the charm but lays the schmaltz on thick, so it falls somewhere in the middle. Predictable to the end (watch the trailer and you've seen the film), I will admit there were moments that I laughed quite hard. Kunis and Timberlake can do comedy with their eyes closed and had their roles been played by any other young actors, the movie probably wouldn't have worked as well (saying that, cameos from Emma Stone and Adam Sandburg are also welcome).

But in the end it's all been seen before. Rom-coms like this are a dime a dozen and pumped relentlessly from the same moulds. Despite being funny, it literally does nothing to elevate itself above the norm. It's a shame really as the first half had promise right before the schmaltz gets slopped on, ironic really, as it falls into trappings that they ape earlier in the film.

3/5