Justin Timberlake impressed me in his first major leading role. Now he’s not ready for an Oscar or anything, but he was believable for the most part. I loved that he made fun of some of his previous looks. It may have helped that he was opposite Mila Kunis who can do almost no wrong in my book.
The supporting cast helped make the movie especially Patricia Clarkson, Bryan Greenberg, and Jenna Elfman. Oh, Emma Stone and Andy Samberg as the main characters exes in the opening sequence are superb!
Unlike, that other movie about casual sex between friends, the backstories of these characters was much, much easier to get behind. Their family issues were more believable and made more sense than Ashton Kutcher’s dad sleeping with his girlfriend and not thinking it was a problem…
The Bad
I really bothered me that Woody Harrelson’s character is obnoxiously and stereotypically gay, so much so that it’s almost the only thing the audience takes away from his role in the film. He talks constantly about sex in a pretty crass manner and is predatory toward attractive, straight characters. Now, I’m no prude nor am I a saint by any means, but I would have liked to see play something more than comedic relief solely because of his sexual orientation.
Shaun White—yes, snowboarder Shaun White—has a really unfortunate set of cameos. Honestly he could have been left out completely and the movie would have been great!
The Nerdy
Rashida Jones & Jason Segel cameo as the stars of a romantic comedy the characters watch and critique. Their fake movie is set in New York and filmed in Los Angeles so a number of the clips are quite laughable.
The film also includes a few clichés that they characters make note of about romantic comedies.Perhaps the most overplayed of these is the use of Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister” to show the audience how happy they should be despite whatever other emotions they felt throughout the movie. They are so meta!
What did you think of FWB? Was it worthy of sharing with your friends with or without benefits?
