Does director Will Gluck really expect us to seriously ponder the question at the heart of his new film FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS? I hope not! The question is, can a man and woman be sexual partners and just be friends?! Surely, no-one falls for that no strings attached sales pitch!
Justin Timberlake as Dylan and Mila Kunda as Jamie play two twenty-somethings hanging out together in New York (Jamie is a recruitment consultant who has snared Los Angeles based Dylan a magazine art director’s job in the big Apple) who decide to tempt fate by hoping into bed together. Gluck’s film charts their not so smooth journey.
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, from the opening scene to its snappy closing credits, feels super slick which, to be honest, is a bit of a turn off!
What also was a turn-off was that FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS did feature some very weak dialogue. I’m just wondering whether we really needed the scene where Dylan c goes to the loo and from the bedroom jamie sings out-‘did you just poop?’. Did we really need that scene in a supposedly sophisticated American comedy?!
The film came across as a big promo for the city that never sleeps and in this respect it was quite successful. It made me want to leave my cinema seat and go to Flight Centre and book my first flight to New York!
The acting talent in the supporting cast is immense and steals the show. Woody Harrelson is great as Justin’s outspokenly gay sports editor Tommy who supports Justin when he sees him struggling.
Patricia Clarkson is great as Jamie’s kooky, big-hearted mother Lorna. Richard Jenkins is memorable as Justin’s father Mr Harper who has Alzheimer’s. The restaurant scene between father and son in a swanky restaurant with Justin being there for his ailing father touched the heart.
Just for something different, Gluck has a scene where Dyaln and Dylan, feeling loose and easy, hang off the famous Hollywood letters on the hills surrounding the dream factory. That is, until a helicopter comes and rescues Dylan, who is scared of heights!
With FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, Will Gluck has made a film that joins a whole host of unremarkable, diverting and slick date movies.
© David Kary
8th September, 2011