No Strings Attached

Ricky Gervais, during the recent Golden Globes telecast, introduced presenter Natalie Portman with a joke about how she wasn't nominated for anything this year because she had a baby. That isn't precisely true, as Portman actually had four releases during the calendar year. It was just that none of them were particularly well received. I yield to no one in my enchantment with Portman, so I will take a look at those four films here over the coming week.

In No Strings Attached, Portman shows a gift for comedy, even if she can't completely keep afloat another film that signifies the sorry state of romantic comedy these days. She plays an intern that has the hots for an old acquaintance (Ashton Kutcher). She's commitmentphobic, so they arrange to have sex without the accompanying relationship tropes. Of course, this will go wrong, and love will triumph after all.

I liked the first half or so of the film. I haven't seen Kutcher in much, but he has a likable casualness. He's wasting his career on low-level stuff like this, though. There are also several notable actors in supporting roles. Kevin Kline is Kutcher's dad, a TV star who has stolen his son's girlfriend (Ophelia Lovibond). Portman has roommates who are also appealing actors--Greta Gerwig and Mindy Kaling--but neither are given much to do.

Instead we get a lot of smirking, smutty jokes. The writer, Elizabeth Meriweather, seems like a child who has just discovered words like "penis," and realizes she can get away with them, so they are repeated with impunity. This replaces character development. The film was directed with no particular distinction by Ivan Reitman.

I appreciate Portman's attempt to spread her wings a bit, and urge her to try comedy more often, but choose a better script.