Emma (Natalie Portman) has always been a woman that keeps her guard up in order to not get hurt. Adam (Ashton Kutcher) works in a studio and is waiting for an opportunity as a writer, after he is living under his father’s shadow. After Adam finds out his dad is having sex with his ex-girlfriend he too just goes out looking for nothing more than a one-night stand. After a night in the town and plenty of phone calls later, Adam wakes up naked in Emma’s apartment. As he is about to leave, Emma and Adam engage in quickie sex. Sparking the idea of becoming sex buddies with no attachment whatsoever, but things aren’t always that simple as the two are about to find out.
So we’ve seen this before, in a market filled with good, lame, downright bad attempts at romantic comedies, No Strings Attach falls somewhere in between. We all know what is going to happen during the first 15 minutes of the film. Sure, we are used to seeing some happy endings and this won’t disappoint. However my complaint with the film is the way the story was presented. The story was flat with very little flair and predictability that you could see every outcome a mile away. Sure, the writers tried to explore modern way of having relationships and at the same time trying to add some comedy to the mix, but this formula can easily end up bad. Fortunately, Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher get along and they make it a bit easier on us.
The film tried to give us an idea of what the lead female character’s persona was; yet as the film went along we slowly saw that it truly wasn’t the case. Ultimately that cause the whole story to have a higher level of predictability and the way we see Emma changes completely towards the middle of the movie. This was Natalie Portman’s last movie before her Oscar triumph, but nothing close to what we are used to see her perform in. This is far away from the serious roles we are used to see her in, but she handles herself well and given the way the movie is written she has a lot of freedom to explore her character. Ashton Kutcher was not the better of the two, I know we’ve seen him in other romantic comedies, but this isn’t necessarily for him or at least not his role. He was very one dimensional and even with the freedom the writers gave him with the script he wasn’t very good.
The film wasn’t as bad though it did have its moments of comedy. It never tied to be one of those films that try too hard and has raunchy moments in order to keep you in your seat. Ivan Reitman had some good ideas and some may or may not like the rom-com mechanics used, but the fact is No Strings Attached was a decent flick.
No Strings Attached arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p MPEG4-AVC encode framed at 2.40:1. Paramount’s video transfer is near demo worthy since it is simply top quality. Colors are natural and unlike other romantic comedies the colors are overdone. Skin tones do feature a warm look, but it is relatively stable. Black levels are stable and well reproduced. The image features some great deal of detail and sharpness. Close up shots, surroundings, clothing, etc. offer a great deal of detailing that is very impressing. All anomalies are non-existent, some minor noise in a few scenes, but it is seriously not a big deal and most will just ignore it. No Strings Attached looks very good on Blu-ray.
No Strings Attached arrives on Blu-ray with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio lossless track. Just like many romantic comedies the track has a very simple design that is not meant to make your house rumble, but instead handle the job with ease. The dialogue is a breeze coming through with clean and clear reproduction. Directionality is spot on. LFE output only makes its presence in a few scenes. Ambient and atmospheric effects are very light and only provide some support on rare occasion. Overall, the track does a good job with the task of reproducing everything that is thrown at it.
Audio Commentary – Featuring Ivan Reitman in what seems to be a very boring commentary. Reitman offers some insights, but spends long periods of time quite. Without any sort of company Reitman didn’t really seem entertaining.
Inside the Sassy of Secret High – This featurette takes a quick look at the “Glee” like
Sex Friends: Getting Together – This is more of a promotional piece than anything. It’s a very straight forward making of featuring some of the actors talking about the film.
Modern Love: The Dos and Don’ts – A piece that allows the actors to talk about different aspects of today’s relationships.
Alternate Storyline Scenes
Deleted Scenes
No Strings Attached had a very good start featuring some comedic situations, but somewhere in the middle everything just sort of took a dive that lead to something we already know too well, the generic rom-com love ending. Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher made things slightly better, but they too succumbed to the story. I would say that at the very least rent it as it makes a very good popcorn film. The Blu-ray looks and sounds great too, plus it is filled with some entertaining supplements.
