My New Husband's New Movie

Hello Everyone, I have some news to announce. I've remarried. My new husband's name is Ashton Kutcher. 

Well, he's actually an old flame. I noticed him when he first appeared on "That 70's Show" as Michael Kelso.

Anyway, this is one talented actor. Y'know how some people do comedy so well they get stuck doing silly roles? Well, he's done serious roles too, and he's pretty good at it. See The Butterfly Effect and The Guardian.

In No Strings Attached, he plays Adam, a sensitive, kind-hearted, annoyingly optimistic guy who is going through a bit of a rough spot relationship-wise.

The movie also stars Natalie Portman. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, I've never quite appreciated any of the other characters (Princess Amidala in Star Wars...zzz) she's played before. She always seemed so boring. But when I saw her in No Strings Attached, I was impressed.

For the first time, in my opinion, she's stepping out and doing something different. And the character she played, Emma, was one in a million.

So here's how the story goes.

Adam and Emma are old friends from many many years ago, and by chance they bump into each other again years later. They get along very well, but Emma, who is a doctor and a very practical, realistic person finds it hard to attach herself to someone. Thus, she proposes to Adam that they have a relationship with No Strings Attached.

And then, they set some ground rules and they are:

Adam and Emma are great together as friends, and bed-mates, and as long as there are no expectations, no fighting, no jealousy, they believe that this no strings attached relationship will work out.

However, love starts to get in the way.

Will this strictly physical relationship work out? Can they still stay friends?

Ivan Reitman is a great director (Ghostbusters, Kindergarten Cop) and it's probably clear to him that no romantic comedy is ever complete without very strange, quirky side characters. So this movie has no shortage of that! Emma's housemates, Patrice, Shira, and Guy are so funny and Adam's best friends, Eli and Wallace are so stupid it's funny. Not to mention his girlfriend-stealing superstar dad, Great Scott! played by Kevin Kline.

Of course, the romantic comedy formula is that the girl walks away and the guy walks away and then one turns back and for some reason they don't get back together and then when one of them finally decides to throw their pride away and go for the kill, there will be some strange turn of events, and then there's a misunderstanding and they'll be so disheartened because they think they've lost true love forever. BUT then eventually it all works out and either the guy or the girl will have something unbelievably romantic to say.*

And then they will kiss, make up and live happily ever after.

BUT, I thought whatever it was that Adam said in the end was quite lame. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but I was hoping it'll be something really really sweet and funny. I even held my breath for it!

But it wasn't. Oh well. Maybe the whole movie was just so good that just that one line was not enough to round it all up.

Here's the trailer!

My rating: Five out of Five! This is TOTALLY a feel-good movie! Ok, maybe minus a 0.00001 for the make-up line from Adam which wasn't romantic enough.

PERFECT FOR VALENTINE'S DAY!

Or if you're trying to get your bed-mate to take you seriously.

*My favourite romantic comedy quote would be from 10 Things I Hate About You: "But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all" - Kat Stratford, played by Julia Stiles.