 On paper, No Strings Attached (NSA) is a bit like a jumped up When Harry Met Sally. Both films involve that age old question: Can a man and woman be intimately involved and still just be friends? And follow a sort of a same friends bumping into each other at different junctures of life sectioning of time. Since we are officially in romcom world with NSA, you might already know the answer to that question.
One of the reasons NSA drew me to watch it was the fact that this was Natalie Portman’s follow up to Black Swan, which as everyone knows had her playing her neurotic best. In comparison, NSA is supposed to be a more normal, everyday story which Natalie herself had proclaimed was sort of an anti chick flick. She had said that she hated romcoms in which the girl simply plays the part of the girlfriend of a funny guy, without being funny herself. So clearly we expected Portman to be totally hilarious in her subtle, indie-girl, Oscar winner’s way. I can’t decide if Natalie Portman’s character, Emma is funny. She is simply a girl who is very zoned into her career and has absolutely no time for love. She has her own set of issues. She is quirky in that she is not looking for someone to sweep her off her feet, which is the premise of several romcoms.
Emma says a lot of things like “people are not meant to be together forever,” and “monogamy goes against our basic biology,” and rather than making her character sound strong and self-assured, it just sounds like someone who wants to be convinced otherwise.
From the very outset, Emma lets Adam, Kutcher’s character, know that she is “not very affectionate,” as she puts an awkward arm around him to comfort him. This was when they met at camp at 15. 15 years on, we at some point see Emma putting her arm around Adam awkwardly again. This is when you know these two are going to fall in love and have three kids and a Golden Retriever someday. But anyway, there are bridges to cross for this couple through the course of the film.
 Adam is an aspiring writer who works as an assistant of a TV show. His father, Alvin, played by Kevin Kline is one of those nightmare dads who cost their kids millions in therapy throughout their lives. Incidentally, Alvin was the star of his own hit show back in the day and we can assume Adam feels overshadowed by him. But Adam is normal, I suppose, and is dating some kind of an airhead whom he runs into Emma with one day. A few months on, his girlfriend ditches him for his dad, and thus Adam ends up drunk dialing Emma and the two eventually decide to just go with their gut and be friends with benefits.
It would be simple enough. But soon Adam finds himself being jealous of other guys who might be interested in Emma, and Emma finds herself chasing girls out Adam’s house, and Adam finds himself googling up all sorts of womanly problems, and making Emma a mix CD. Which, since these two grew up in the ‘90s, means he is totes in love with her.
Somehow though, NSA ends up being every chick flick that has ever been made. It has cheating partners, scary parents, emotional disengagement and someone who saves someone from themselves. It is Pretty Woman, it is Legally Blonde, it is the Runaway Bride...Also, it is sort of like that terrible Drew Barrymore film, Going The Distance, as everybody drops the f-bomb a lot, which might be a part of everyday colloquialism now but how is it funny?
On the plus side though, if we forget that this film was pretending to be anything other than your average romcom, NSA is not half bad. The writing is sharper than a lot of other films out there right now and the supporting cast is actually pretty great. It won’t rock your inner world with its insight, but might fill up an otherwise boring hour or so.
– Amina Baig
*CINEMATIC SUICIDE
**FORGETTABLE
***WATCHABLE
****COLLECTIBLE
*****AWARD-WORTH |
