An average movie

A few months back, I saw ‘No Strings Attached’ and I thought it was terribly underwhelming so I wasn’t expecting much from another recent romantic-comedy with a very similar plot. Surprisingly, it turned out to be much better and I actually enjoyed most of it. The first improvement was that instead of Ashton Kutcher, you had here Justin Timberlake who was not just another pretty face, but was actually pretty funny and, above all, he managed to give his character some interesting layers. I wouldn’t try to compare Mila Kunis with Natalie Portman (who did her best with the terrible ‘No Strings Attached’) but Kunis was pretty good too and, together, they definitely had some nice chemistry. So, the whole thing was not bad at all and it didn’t need much to completely convince me. Still, even though the makers tried to make you believe that they were poking fun at the genre, it was actually pretty fake, as the whole thing remained terribly safe and completely within the boundaries of the genre. They even threw in some poorly developed sub-plot about Alzheimer in the mix (if I recall correctly, the poor Richard Jenkins who deserves much better played a very similar role in ‘Dear John’). Still, even though it was not really amazing, it is and remains a pretty decent romantic-comedy and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

6/10