No Strings Attached

Szczegóły: Nadrzędna kategoria: Filmy; Kategoria: Recenzje filmowe z Guardiana

Hanging on to the plot of this romcom is less of an issue than hanging on to your lunch. How could you, Nat and Ash?

Peter Bradshaw
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 24 February 2011

No Strings Attached

Production year: 2011
Country: USA
Cert (UK): 15
Runtime: 108 mins
Directors: Ivan Reitman
Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Cary Elwes, Chris Ludacris Bridges, Greta Gerwig, Jake M Johnson, Kevin Kline, Lake Bell, Natalie Portman, Talia Balsam

Two attractive young people, Adam (Ashton Kutcher) and Emma (Natalie Portman) hook up, and decide to dispense with all the stupid and painful relationship stuff, agreeing just to use each other for sex, with no strings attached. But then … well, you don't need a PhD in romcomology from the University of Predictable Nonsense, formerly Predictable Nonsense Polytechnic, to guess what happens next. Hanging on to your hat is not a problem as this film's plot unfolds; holding on to your lunch might be. Portman (so good in Black Swan) is just terrible here, and so is Kutcher, who recently showed in David Mackenzie's LA satire Spread what a smart actor he can be. The payoff of the scene in which Emma meets Adam's smug dad Alvin (Kevin Kline) is bafflingly misjudged and mishandled, and Alvin's bimbo-Brit younger girlfriend Vanessa (Ophelia Lovibond) is the conduit of some really nasty, devious, ageist humour in the film's final moments.