Friends with Benefits

UK Release: 9th September 2011

Watched on DVD: Monday 5th November 2012

Rating: 15

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Runtime: 1hr 49mins

Tagline: Friendship is a four-letter word.

IMDb Plot Synopsis: Jamie (Kunis) is a New York head-hunter trying to sign Los Angeles-based Dylan (Timberlake) for her client. When he takes the job and makes the move, they quickly become friends. Their friendship turns into a friendship with benefits, but with Jamie's emotionally damaged past and Dylan's history of being emotionally unavailable, they have to try to not fall for each other the way Hollywood romantic comedies dictate.

My Review: I’d heard an awful lot about this film and had been looking forward to seeing it ever since it featured in my ‘ones to watch’ at the start of 2011. Which may be why it was a victim of that hype as I didn’t love it nearly as much as I was expecting or hoping. 

I adore both Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, the concept seems great and the trailer was super funny and yet when I sat down to watch it (at long last on my birthday morning) it didn’t quite click. And that’s a shame as it had all the components for being a really great film but perhaps I wanted to much from it. 

Ultimately it is a rom-com. And not even a great one, unfortunately, as it was hyped to be. It was billed to be ‘clever’ and to go against the stereotype, and while it starts that way it inevitably falls into the same cliched trappings of the usual rom-com and what’s worse is that it pretended to be more than that and so it felt doubly anti-climatic. At least normal rom-coms don’t pretend to be something they’re not. 

What I wanted was something akin to 500 Days of Summer which actually is incredibly clever and funny and original and breaks the boundaries of the typical ‘rom-com’. And so while Friends of Benefits was beautifully shot, sweet, enjoyable and full of fantastic actors, it wasn’t what I wanted it to be and therefore, unfortunately, I was disappointed. 

However, I’m looking forward to giving it another try in the future having less expectations and instead just going along with the rom-com flow...

Score: 7.5/10