No Strings Attached (film)
| No Strings Attached | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ivan Reitman |
| Screenplay by | Elizabeth Meriwether |
| Story by | Elizabeth Meriwether Mike Samonek |
| Produced by | Jeffrey Clifford Joe Medjuck Ivan Reitman |
| Starring | Natalie Portman Ashton Kutcher |
| Cinematography | Rogier Stoffers |
| Edited by | Dana E. Glauberman |
| Music by | John Debney |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | Template:Film US |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million[1] |
| Box office | $101,976,038[2] |
No Strings Attached is a 2011 American romantic comedy film starring Academy Award winner Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. The film is directed by Ivan Reitman. Emma (Portman) and Adam (Kutcher) are friends who have sex one morning and worry about their friendship being ruined. They make a pact to have "no strings attached", to have casual sex without falling in love with each other.[3] The film was released in the United States and Canada on January 21, 2011.
Plot
Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) are two friends who keep bumping into each other after years apart from each other. Emma and Adam meet again through their mutual friend Patrice, when Emma is a resident in a local hospital and Adam is the assistant on a Glee-type show, with aspirations of becoming a script writer. Adam takes down Emma’s phone number, but forgets to call her. Six months later, Adam becomes distraught, when his eccentric father (Kevin Kline), who used to be the star of a TV show called “Great Scott” is having a relationship with his ex-girlfriend Vanessa. Determined to ‘get back on the wagon’, Adam starts calling every woman in his cell phone. The next day, he wakes up after a drunken night to find out that he text-messaged Emma and came to the home she shares with some other residents, including Patrice. Emma leads Adam to her bedroom to retrieve his pants, when the two of them wind up having sex.
Because Emma doesn’t believe in love – she believes that ‘no two people were meant to be together forever’ – Emma proposes that they have casual sex with each other, setting some ground rules for each other to prevent their relationship from becoming too serious. At first things go well, but then Adam starts becoming jealous of the possibility of Emma being with another doctor, Sam. Although denying that he is jealous, Adam starts presenting her with gifts, which she rebuffs. Adam becomes more distraught when his father asks him to dinner with Vanessa on Adam’s birthday, where they announce that they’re planning on having a baby together. Emma, who accompanied Adam to the dinner, berates the couple while defending Adam. Adam eventually convinces her to go out with him on a date on Valentine’s Day. Things come to a head when Emma starts becoming too uncomfortable about being on a date with Adam. Adam tells Emma that he loves her, but she grows angry, telling him he should go out with another woman who ‘isn’t going to hurt you’. Adam drops Emma off at her hospital and drives off.
Six weeks later, a spec script Adam had wrote for his show and submitted through Lucy, the production assistant on the show, is being filmed and Adam is set to get a writing job on the show. Emma, meanwhile, has become distraught at not being with Adam, which is compounded by her younger sister’s upcoming wedding the next day and her widowed mother arriving with a new boyfriend. Emma tries calling Adam, but Adam rebuffs her on the phone. Emma realizes she wants to be with him, and drives down to his home. Adam, however, arrives home with Lucy, whom Emma takes to be Adam’s new girlfriend. Emma tearfully starts driving back to the wedding. Before Adam and the production assistant can have sex, Adam is called by Vanessa – his father is in the hospital, having overdosed on cough syrup. Arriving at the hospital, Vanessa confesses that she doesn’t want to be with an older man, and dumps her dog off on Adam, who talks to his father and chastises him, but tells him he’ll call tomorrow. On the way out, Adam is called again by Emma. Adam angrily tells Emma that she needs to have the conversation she wants in person – which she does; Emma’s friend and resident Shira noticed Adam’s father arriving and called Emma. Adam and Emma eventually reconcile, and after a morning of eating breakfast together they go together to Emma’s sister’s wedding. Emma asks, “So, what’s next?” and Adam silently holds her hand.
Cast
- Natalie Portman as Dr. Emma K. Kurtzman. Though the timing was coincidental, Portman welcomed the chance to portray a character in contrast to her role in Black Swan.[4]
- Ashton Kutcher as Adam Franklin
- Jake M. Johnson as Eli
- Cary Elwes as Dr. Metzner
- Mindy Kaling as Shira
- Kevin Kline as Alvin Franklin
- Greta Gerwig as Patrice
- Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as Wallace
- Olivia Thirlby as Katie Kurtzman
- Lake Bell as Lucy
- Ophelia Lovibond as Vanessa
- Talia Balsam as Sandra Kurtzman
- Guy Branum as Guy
- Phil LaMarr as Police Officer
- Adhir Kalyan as Kevin
- Ben Lawson as Sam
- Matthew Moy as Chuck
- Jennifer Irwin as Megan
Production
No Strings Attached is directed by Ivan Reitman based on a screenplay by Elizabeth Meriwether titled Friends With Benefits. The Paramount Pictures film was first announced in March 2010 as an untitled project. Actors Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman were cast in the lead roles, and Paramount anticipated a release date of January 7, 2011.[5] Reitman said about the premise of casual sex, "I noticed from my own kids that with this generation in particular, young people find it easier to have a sexual relationship than an emotional one. That is how the sexes deal with each other today."[6] Principal photography began in May 2010.[7] By November 2010, the film was titled No Strings Attached with a new release date of January 21, 2011.[6]
Release
Theatrical run
No Strings Attached had its world premiere on January 11, 2011 at the Fox Village Theater in Los Angeles, California.[8] The film was released in 3,018 theaters in the United States and Canada on January 21, 2011.[2] Its target demographic was women between 17 and 24 years old, and its primary competition was The Dilemma. Interest tracking reflected the target demographic's gaining interest in the film leading up to its release, and tracking also revealed "good early awareness" from Hispanic audiences. The studio predicted for the film to gross in the "mid-to-high teens" millions,[9] similar to past romantic comedies rated "R" (restricted to 17 years old and up) by the Motion Picture Association of America. With No Strings Attached as the only wide opener in the United States and Canada, it was uncertain if it would rank first at the box office above The Green Hornet, which opened the previous weekend in first place with $33.5 million.[1]
Ultimately, No Strings Attached beat The Green Hornet with an opening weekend gross of $20.3 million. Its opening was better than expected for the genre. The attendance was "overwhelmingly female" with 70% of the audience being women.[10] According to CinemaScore, audiences under the age of 25 gave the film an "A-" grade while audiences over the age of 25 gave it a "B" grade. Future grosses are expected to be dependent on the younger demographic.[11]
The film has grossed $68.7 million in the United States and Canada and $33.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $101.9 million.[2]
Reception
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 50% based on reviews from 145 critics and reports a rating average of 5.3 out of 10.[12] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 50% based on 36 reviews.[13] Rotten Tomatoes reported that critics described No Strings Attached as having "moments of warmth and sweetness that are spoiled by a predictable narrative and a dirty mind." It said, "The pundits say Portman and Kutcher keep things genial and easygoing, but they're let down by a middling script that shoehorns in a little too much raunchy material."[14]
Critic David Edelstein described No Strings Attached as a film with "a supposedly feminist veneer...(that) never makes the case for Emma's point of view. It's almost a feminist backlash movie, and it didn't have to be. There are plenty of reasons for brilliant young women, especially with the stress of a medical career, to approach time- and emotion-consuming relationships warily." He expressed disappointment on overuse of stock characters, as well as Reitman's "heavy-handed" direction and a story that is ultimately "corny and contrived and conservative."[15]
Music
No Strings Attached: Music from the Motion Picture was released on February 15, 2011 by Lakeshore Records.
See also
References
- ^ a b McClintock, Pamela (January 20, 2011). "Natalie Portman's 'No Strings Attached' Goes Up Against 'Green Hornet' at the Box Office". The Hollywood Reporter.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c "No Strings Attached (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved February 8, 2011.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|work=(help) - ^ "No Strings Attached". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved January 19, 2011.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/19/natalie-portman-really-pr_n_810855.html
- ^ McClintock, Pamela (March 17, 2010). "Reitman to direct Kutcher, Portman". Variety.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Wloszczyna, Susan (November 4, 2010). "First look: Kutcher, Portman star in 'No Strings Attached'". USA Today.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Rooney, David (May 5, 2010). "Making a Success of Her Messiness on Two Coasts". The New York Times.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ McNary, Dave (January 12, 2011). "'Strings' preem pulls in celebs". Variety.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Abrams, Rachel (January 21, 2011). "Will Par's 'Strings' resonate?". Variety.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Stewart, Andrew (January 23, 2011). "'No Strings' tops weekend B.O." Variety.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Fritz, Ben (January 24, 2011). "Company Town: Women help make 'No Strings Attached' a winner". Los Angeles Times.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "No Strings Attached". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved February 8, 2011.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "No Strings Attached". Metacritic. CBS. Retrieved February 8, 2011.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ Ryan, Tim (January 21, 2011). "Critics Consensus: No Strings Attached Is A Little Frayed". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - ^ Edelstein, David (January 21, 2011). "'No Strings Attached': Corny, Contrived, Conservative". NPR.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)