No Strings Attached (2011)

No Strings Attached is romantic comedy starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. Now, I'm not a prolific watcher of the rom-com genre and honestly I've probably only seen a few of them throughout my entire life to this point. I bring this up because it seems like most of the criticisms people have of this film deal with the idea that it's not all that original and the only thing it did differently was add in foul language. I, on the other hand, really enjoyed this film for what it is. I think this is primarily because I'm still pretty inexperienced with the rom-com genre, but I also think it's because there's nothing really "wrong" with this film. Does it lean more on romance than comedy? Sure, but I actually appreciated that choice. Is the story about as surface level as it gets? Yes, but I also think that the chemistry between Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher largely makes up for that flaw. I knew, along with everyone else who has seen this film, how it was going to end the entire time, but I was still interested in how it would get to that point, and I can't say that I was dissatisfied when the credits rolled.

In the end, No Strings Attached is a perfectly fine romantic comedy. It's not going to blow your socks off, but you'll get your fix off of it.