'No Strings Attached' about commitment-phobe friends

Strong language, partial nudity and lots of sex are what set the R-rated romantic comedy "No Strings Attached" apart from its modesty-dressed PG-13 ilk. The film isn't as edgy as it thinks - a dope-smoking dad? Shocker! - but it does mix some surprisingly cavalier attitudes with its traditional values.

Gender roles are gently upended by casting Natalie Portman as the career-oriented, commitment-phobic doctor Emma Kurtzman and Ashton Kutcher as her sensitive boyfriend, Adam Franklin. Perhaps boyfriend is too strong a word: After a quickie, Emma sets the ground rules for a friendly, symbiotic relationship. "Do you really want to do this?" she says. "Use each other for sex at all hours of the day and night?" Adam eagerly, though disingenuously, says yes.

Despite the topsy-turvy premise, "No Strings Attached" remains basically conventional. Emma is not happily single but emotionally fearful; Adam's job is to wear her down with love. These are character formulations we've seen before (and may see again when "Friends With Benefits," with Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, arrives in summer).

Kutcher and Portman are convincing enough as attractive young people - not a surprise - but the real fun comes from the supporting players, including Greta Gerwig ("Greenberg") and Mindy Kaling (NBC's "The Office") as Emma's saucy roommates. Kevin Kline plays Adam's incorrigibly youthful father, and Lake Bell ("It's Complicated") is so appealing as a clumsy beauty that you'll wonder why the film hides her for so long.

Care to guess how it ends? Rest assured that romantic comedies, no matter how daring, never change.
 

Back story: Portman on lightening up

In "No Strings Attached," Natalie Portman gets to play the sort of straight-talking, commitment-phobic role usually reserved for guys - and that's one of the things she liked about the project.

"I think we all know women like this," she said in a telephone interview. "I think it allows the genre to feel new. We've all seen a hundred romantic comedies, but this one really turns it on its head."

Portman says she was excited to read a script with such a funny part for a lead female character and so many humorous roles for other women. Her co-stars include Mindy Kaling ("The Office"), Greta Gerwig ("Greenberg"), Lake Bell ("It's Complicated") and Olivia Thirlby ("Juno"), who, she said, "kind of steal the movie."

"It's just one after the other, there's these really, really shining stars who I think really kind of steal the movie," says.

After enduring the emotional and physical demands of "Black Swan," for which she trained a year to achieve a ballerina's body and movements, filming "No Strings Attached" was a nice change of pace. Portman enjoyed hanging out and having "really fun dinners" with her co-stars and screenwriter and not having to worry about counting calories or working out.

- Detroit Free Press