Should You Get Attached to No Strings Attached?

No Strings Attached is a romantic comedy that explores a more serious question than the typical “boy meets girl” venture. The central issue of the film is whether our two lovable main characters truly can have sex without all those prickly “relationship” issues.

Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) meet for the first time fifteen years ago in camp. Adam’s parents are going through a divorce and the emotionally awkward Emma offers him comfort. The movie then flashes forward through time and sees the dynamic duo meet up at various places and times. Finally, the film arrives in present day Los Angeles. Adam is frustrated at being a lowly TV producer’s assistant (whose writing no one in the ‘biz will read) and Emma spends lots and lots of time being a doctor at the hospital. Their friends with benefits relationship does not start until Adam’s girlfriend, Vanessa (Ophelia Lovibond), leaves Adam for his father (who just happens to be Kevin Kline), a famous actor of the olden days.

Distraught, Adam is encouraged by his manly friends to get over Vanessa by sleeping with someone else right then and there. Many alcoholic drinks later and Adam is still on the phone, calling every girl in his contacts list. He wakes up the next morning naked and hung over in the apartment that Emma shares with her friends from the hospital.

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The Dilemma

A buddy comedy/drama starring Vince Vaughn as Ronny Valentine and Kevin James as his best friend Nick Brannen, The Dilemma centers around Ronny and his problem. The thing is, Ronny has discovered that his best friend’s wife, Geneva (played by Winona Ryder) is cheating on him with a tattooed-up miscreant, Channing Tatum. So Ronny faces a choice: to tell or not to tell.

The usual dilemma is compounded by the fact that the duo is trying to sell a “manly” electric engine prototype to a large car company. While Ronny is the business brains of their venture, Nick is the car genius who is already stressed from trying to make the working prototype to meet a strict deadline. Thus Ronny’s problem becomes even more complicated. If he tells Nick about his cheating wife, he might not finish the engine and then their venture, for which both have staked a lot of money, will be sunk.

Vince Vaughn and Kevin James in their roles as best-friends-since-college are believable. Even Jennifer Connelly as Ronny’s girlfriend Beth who sticks by Ronny throughout the issues of the film is convincing. The issue comes from Winona Ryder’s character of Geneva. The acting itself is not the issue; Ryder acts the part well. The issue comes with the script writing. It is a bit difficult to swallow Geneva’s niceties with her heartless discussions with Ronny about her affair. The climax scene especially and the character’s reactions seem a bit strange.

As for the events of the movie,

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