No Brain, I mean Strings, Attached

Synposis
Natalie and Ashton decide they'll be friends with benefits (sex partners, without the relationship part), mainly because Natalie is a high-achieving commitment phobe. She realises this is a crummy way to go through life, and to my utter amazement and shock .... they finally decide they'll actually be a couple and go out together. Truely genre-bending.

What I thought
This may be the last time I can go to the crying room at Victoria Gardens, Ave is getting a bit too old to be cuddled or breastfed to sleep, and unfortunately this was the only thing showing...

I'm not sure about Natalie Portman as a rom-com lead, even if she is playing a (believable) Doctor. She is very straight. She doesn't really 'do' emotions or exhuberance - she keeps everything in check. And even though these were traits of the character she was playing, they also seem to be her own traits. Ashton Kutcher seems to be playing himself - a slightly thick, handsome guy, with about as much charisma as a piece of cardboard. I get the feeling he thinks he's totally hot, which makes him (for me anyway) totally not...

A rom-com is always going to be predictable. But this was beyond predictable. It was boring. I think a good rom-com has to have some sort of larger than life characters - and these guys are just so tediously normal. Think Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore - even Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey ("alright, alright, alright") though I'm loathe to admit it - these guys are all 'more', not less. It kind of doesn't work if you aren't 'over emoting'. It is a pretty fine line to balance though - go watch any JLo or Cameron Diaz movie - and you will see how over emoting can go horribly wrong.... The Wedding Planner, What Happens in Vegas.... say no more.

Cons
Trying a bit too hard with the whole 'wacky' friend routine. It's like they decided to go with all the wacky friends, instead of just committing to one good solid wack-job - like Philip Seymour Hoffman in Along Came Polly.

Zero charisma between the 'opposites attract' leads.

Pros
It was pretty awesome to see Cary Elwes (Wesley from The Princess Bride) pop up as a Doctor in the hospital where Nat works. Now he's hot.