Jamie (Mila Kunis) is a headhunter in NYC who meets Los Angeles native Dylan (Justin Timberlake) when she is scouting him for the job of Art Director for GQ Magazine. Jamie shows him a fantastic time in New York and Dylan decides to accept the position. Although there's an immediate spark of attraction, the two end up becoming best friends, hanging out together all the time. In the meantime, they are both having romance troubles; Dylan with his ex Kayla (Emma Stone), and Jamie with her beau, Quincy (Andy Samberg), who declares her emotionally needy and broken. Both Dylan and Jamie swear off romance, vowing it is too complicated. They then decide to embark on a purely physical relationship with one another - sex with no strings attached. No one gets hurt and both parties get what they want, right?
Inevitably, they begin to develop feelings for one another. It all comes to a head when Jamie's flighty mother Lorna (Patricia Clarkson) cancels their girls' 4th of July weekend together and Dylan invites Jamie back home to California for a weekend with his family. Since Dylan has never brought a girl home before, his family is intrigued. His sister, Annie (Jenna Elfman), insists he's never looked happier and his father (Richard Jenkins), who is suffering from Alzheimer's, keeps mistaking Jamie for a long lost love. When Annie confronts Dylan about his feelings for Jamie and Jamie overhears some things she shouldn't, she bolts back to NYC to re-evaluate the entire scenario. Can their friendship survive and turn into something more or are they doomed?
Friends with Benefits is a cute romantic comedy, but it's fairly raunchy so I don't recommend watching it with Mom and Dad. While the shots are fairly tastefully done, you'll get to see a good bit of Mr. Timberlake's backside (and a fine backside it is at that) and there's a lot of frank bedroom talk. This is not a film for the kiddies.
I felt like the first half of the movie was all about sex, but then it turned into a typical romantic comedy with all of the miscommunication, missed opportunities and eventual "Hollywood happy ending." I enjoyed the film, but didn't find it nearly as clever as Director Will Gluck's last outing, the very excellent and smart Easy A. Timberlake and Kunis have great chemistry together, but my favorite character in the film is GQ's openly gay sports writer, Tommy (Woody Harrelson), who was absolutely hilarious. Shaun White appears as himself, seeming to always want to get into fights with Dylan and while this was an amusing running gag, it was a bit overplayed.
As far as special features go, the typical stuff is there. Some deleted scenes and outtakes, commentary with Gluck, Kunis and Timberlake, a pop-up trivia track, and two featurettes - one on constructing a flash mob (as seen in the film) and one on the on-set antics of the cast. The film looks fantastic in high def Blu-ray as there are wonderful scenes of both New York cityscapes and California vistas, and the soundtrack is a terrific collection of music. While it won't exactly blow your speakers up with sound effects, I really enjoyed the choice in music.
While it definitely won't win my vote as my favorite romantic comedy, Friends with Benefits would make a fun rental for grown-up movie night, whether your friends come with benefits or not.
