No Strings Attached a Clichéd Affair

Portman, Kutcher in 'formulaic' rom-com
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 21, 2011 11:15 AM CST

In No Strings Attached, Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher try for sex without love, but run into complications. It’s a big step down for Oscar contender Portman, say critics (46% approval on Rotten Tomatoes vs. 79% for fans):

  • The film is “basically Love & Other Drugs without the disease,” writes AO Scott in the New York Times. It’s “hard to escape the feeling” that director Ivan Reitman “shot six or seven movies and then went into the editing room blindfolded to splice them all together.”

  • “An obsession with raunchy one-liners trips everything up,” writes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times, “turning a clever conceit into something closer to a sleazy, cheesy affair.”
  • In the New York Daily News, Elizabeth Weitzman offers Portman some good news: No Strings Attached “isn't just cheap and formulaic, but so forgettable few people will even remember she was in it.”
(More movie review stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X