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Friends With Benefits

Starring: Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake
Directed by: Will Gluck
Screenplay by: Keith Merryman and David A. Newman

!!!!!!!WARNING!!!!!!!!! THIS IS A SPOILER ALERT.  IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO FIND OUT THE END OF THIS MOVIE, READ NO FURTHER.

    For those of you who thought that this was an original idea for a film, it's not.  Is it funny?  It's hilarious.
    Dylan Harper (Justin Timberlake) is moving to New York from Los Angeles.  As soon as he gets there, he meets Jamie (Mila Kunis).  She is helping him find a new job at GQ magazine.  They develop a strong friendship and try to avoid the classic Hollywood cliche of a relationship.  But when they try to add sex into their friendship, complications arise.  So, after their friendship begins to diminish during a trip to Los Angeles for Jamie to meet Dylan's family, they decide to take a break from each other.  Jamie abruptly leaves the vacation.  But then, Dylan realizes he wants his best friend back so he goes back to New York in the end and makes the movie seem like a classic Hollywood romance.  Sound familiar anyone?
    From the start, it's a pretty predictable story.  We all know what's going to happen in the end.  The movie does a good job of avoiding the classic Hollywood romance for the most part, just the end is the problem.  They don't fall in love at the end, but the parallel is just the same.  Dylan wants his best friend back, just like a boyfriend wants his girlfriend back at the end of many romances in which there's a break up part way through the movie.
    Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis work well together.  They're not the greatest film couple but they work well for the story they're in.  My problem with the cast isn't them, it's the extraneous characters who don't play major roles or advise the other characters all that much.  There are a few of them such as Woody Harrelson as the gay sports writer, and Patricia Clarkson as Jamie's promiscuous mom.
    It seems as though originality has become a problem in movies.  There isn't much originality anymore.  Friends With Benefits is no exception.  The movie drags on for too long.  It seems like it was rushed through production, and isn't the most well put together film ever.  We saw the same kind of story earlier this year with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher in No Strings Attached.  At least it's a break from all the action packed flicks of the summer.
I'm giving Friends With Benefits a C+.

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