Friends With Benefits

First of all, I have to give a shout out to my best friend Janice. We went to see this movie during a "girl's night out" and both really enjoyed it!

Friends with Benefits stars Mila Kunis as Jamie, and headhunter who is trying to convince a successful blogger named Dylan (Justin Timberlake) to move to New York City to take a job as the artistic director at GQ. After a little persuasion, and showing him the "real New York," Dylan agrees to take the job.

Jamie and Dylan become friends, and one night while they are watching a cheesy romantic comedy and drinking some beer, they start discussing the concept of "friends with benefits." They are both rebounding from break ups and agree that men and women let sex become too complicated, and that things wouldn't be so messy if people just looked at it as a physical act without adding extra meaning to it.

They, of course, become friends with benefits and things seem to be going well until Jamie decides she'd like to go back on the dating scene. She meets a pediatric oncologist named Parker (Bryan Greenberg), who decides that things are getting too serious after they sleep together. Her mother convinces her to go out of town for the 4th of July, but after she flakes out on her to spend time with a recent boyfriend, Dylan invites her to LA for the holiday weekend.

In LA, they stay with Dylan's father (Richard Jenkins), his sister Annie (Jenna Elfman) and Annie's son Sam (Nolan Gould). Dylan did not tell Jamie that his father is suffering from Alzheimer's and that his mother left the family when his father became sick. Later that night, Dylan ends up comforting Jamie about her recent break up and they end up sleeping together, which Jamie thinks has more meaning this time. However, the next day she overhears a conversation between Dylan and Annie, is hurt by what Dylan says about her and immediately heads back to New York.

Jamie ignores Dylan's attempts to contact her at first, but when he tracks her down she confronts him about what he said about her and if he really ever wanted to be her friend. When his dad comes to visit from LA, they have a conversation about true love and his regrets that he let his soulmate get away. Dylan realizes that he was afraid of being hurt, and sets out to win Jamie back before it's too late.

There were great cameos in this movie from Andy Samburg, Emma Stone and Shaun White. Woody Harrelson was also hilarious as a gay sports editor at GQ and Richard Jenkins and Patricia Clarkson were terrific as Dylan's dad and Jamie's mom. Most importantly, this movie was true to how men and women in their 20's and 30's relate to each other. Also, Justin Timberlake was not afraid to make a fool of himself and showed a real talent for comedy, and the sex scenes between him and Mila Kunis were very realistic.

Rating: 5/5 stars