Friends with Benefits 2011

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Kunis's easy authority grounds the movie, while Timberlake tapdances delightfully around the edges. Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: Gluck is clearly whip smart and he likes his films that way. This all to the good, but much of "Friends with Benefits" comes off as too showy in its cleverness. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: In an age of connect-the-dots screenwriting, the sheer verbosity of Friends With Benefits is a form of generosity, and Gluck has the ideal cast to spew it out. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: This film's harshness and starkness will strike some people as vulgar, but if you reject it on that basis you might as well just reject the times you're living in. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: It's just sad that a movie suggesting an honest and zesty approach to sex and relationships builds to such a conventional ending... Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Makes for a fairly giggling good time. Read more

Alison Willmore, Time Out: Kunis and Timberlake achieve the trickier feat of looking just as happy hanging out as they do sucking face, and when the cliches inevitably come rolling in, they feel earned rather than like a cop-out. Read more

Logan Hill, New York Magazine/Vulture: Fast-paced and fabulously fake, Friends With Benefits is the Red Bull of romantic comedies, unapologetically delivering a hyperactive, synthetic buzz. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Timberlake and Kunis definitely bring sexy back to a tired formula. If only the movie had been worthy of their expertly playful pairing. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: The fun is in enjoying the two leads, both strikingly good, and the extra (if sometimes misplaced) textures provided by a strong supporting cast including Richard Jenkins, Patricia Clarkson and Jenna Elfman. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Whenever the film gets away from Timberlake and Kunis' flirty banter, it feels like an unfortunate distraction. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Ironically, what "Friends With Benefits" shares most with "No Strings Attached" is that you can see everything coming, with no surprises. Where's the fun in that? Read more

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: Kunis and Timberlake have the rapid-fire patter of Hepburn and Tracy, if Hepburn and Tracy had conversations about Olympic snowboarder Shaun White's pubic hair. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: The jokes don't all work and the topical references can be irritably hipper-than-thou, but at least director and cowriter Will Gluck aims high: this is patterned on the Tracy and Hepburn comedies, albeit with a lot more skin. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: I enjoy both Timberlake and Kunis; just this side of manic, they seem right together. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Timberlake and Kunis try hard to keep this charm machine purring, and they do indeed have traces of chemistry... But their chemistry is at the service of a science project we've all seen before. Read more

Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News: Though it aims to upend the increasingly defunct romantic-comedy genre, Friends With Benefits quickly falls prey to the same cliches. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Directed with quick-witted ease by Will Gluck, the [film is a] frank, frisky, even touching romantic comedy. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: It succeeds, thanks to comedic chemistry between the two leads and nimble direction by Will Gluck. Read more

Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter: Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis make for engaging leads in this unexpectedly fresh R-rated comedy. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Even with all their huffing and puffing, this very salty, often funny affair is never quite as satisfying as it should be. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: It evaporates from memory, just like a one-night stand that didn't go nearly as well as you'd hoped. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Friends with Benefits is fast, allusive, urban, glamorous -- clearly the Zeitgeist winner of the summer. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's gross and kind of embarrassing. For everyone. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: Kunis and Timberlake are winningly comfortable with one another, even if the movie isn't always comfortable with itself. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: "Friends With Benefits" isn't nearly as original as it pretends to be. But it's cute and funny and sweet, which -- as any woman can attest -- puts it way ahead of most Friday night options. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Will Gluck's bright screwball farce has witty dialogue that sparkles, at least by debased 21st-century standards. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: He's "emotionally unavailable." She's "emotionally damaged." The movie: emotionally fake. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: One of the strengths of Friends with Benefits is that Timberlake and Kunis are likeable and display enough chemistry to keep us interested in their inevitable pairing. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: The best romantic comedy of the year. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "Friends With Benefits" follows rom-com formulas as if directed on autopilot, but that's not to say it isn't fun. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Despite a pair of livewires in the leads, Friends With Benefits is just not enough. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: "Friends With Benefits" is often uproariously and profanely funny, and anchored in high-spirited performances from its central duo, who are well matched as comic foils if oddly lacking in erotic electricity. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Friends With Benefits is a dumb, by-the-numbers romantic comedy. Yet I kept finding small things to enjoy in it, mainly because of the two hard-to-hate leads. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A savvy, satirical date movie that holds the conventions of romantic comedy up to self-aware spoofing while still delivering the goods. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: As a predictable romantic fantasy, "Friends with Benefits" profits from two lively and likable stars who maintain our interest. But as the sexual satire in which we invested, there's no payoff. Read more

Anita Li, Globe and Mail: A witty rom-com for the smart-phone generation. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: Anyone who has ever seen a romantic comedy before knows where this one is going. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: It is elevated by energetic dialogue, the sexual chemistry between the leads and the fact that the miscommunication that keeps bliss at bay - there's always one in a rom-com, and usually it is annoyingly unbelievable - is plausible. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: The chemistry between Kunis and her co-star Justin Timberlake is electric. Read more

Greg Quill, Toronto Star: It's one of those rare made-in-Hollywood couplings that transcends the ordinary stuff of movies, like plot and sense and credibility. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: The script exhausts its originality awfully quickly, with subsequent hookups recycling jokes from other movies. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: What's most crushing is witnessing what should have been the dream pairing of Kunis and Timberlake -- both foxy, loose, confident performers -- here generating zero chemistry. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: If "Friends With Benefits" ultimately succumbs to the very sins it so cleverly deconstructs, it still commits those infractions with a welcome degree of wit and, when it slows down enough, spirited flair. Read more