The story revolves around two people who are fed up with love; Dylan, who is played by Justin Timberlake, and Jamie, played by Mila Kunis. These people meet in New York when Jamie headhunts Dylan for a major magazine, and I won’t spoil the humor of seeing what magazine it is. These two people bond over the fact that they are both single in the city.
Of course, as these movies go the two characters decide that the only thing missing from their lives is sex. They decide, since neither one of them want a relationship, to have sex with each other. This empty sex goes on for a while, until Jamie finally breaks it off because she wants to date again and have more than just sex. She then meets a man named Parker. These two date until Jamie finally has sex with him; then Parker hits the bricks after his “conquest”.
Since Dylan is a nice guy, he wants to help Jamie forget about this hurtful situation and he ends up inviting her to the 4th of July in California. After some hesitancy She finally agrees and they head off to sunny California. Jamie meets Dylan’s sister Anne, played by Jenna Elfman. While here, they begin to have feelings for each other and resume their relationship. Unfortunately, Jamie overhears Dylan saying that he has no real feelings. She is very hurt by this and decides to fly back to New York.
Dylan tries to figure out whats wrong whereas Jamie finally admits she overheard him. Some other things happen, and Dylan and Jamie decide to re-evaluate their lives. Both people begin doing some soul searching, that takes the normal long montage. Both Jamie and Dylan realize that they are in love with each other. After a really romantic proposal they decide to live happily ever after.
The actors in Friends with Benefits are an intense blend of comic gold that succeed in bringing the story to life. Justin Timberlake leads the cast. He proves that he is not just a one trick pony and can play the various depth of character roles necessary for an actor. He embodies the geeky-sweet guy that everybody secretly roots for; while still having that edge that many of the “geek” actors cannot pull off. He is paired with the lovely Mlia Kunis, from That 70’s Show fame. Mila has to play the hardass, with a soft side. She does this admirably and believably. The two actors are able to play off each other to make chemistry come alive throughout the scenes in Friends with Benefits. If I didn’t know better, I would think they were dating. Woody Harrelson joins the cast as a bit of a comic relief. As imagined, he is crazy in Friends with Benefits and really brings the over the top laughs that this movie needs.
Friends with Benefits presents the normal romantic comedy in a new, unique manner. It presents a sarcastic side to the normal lovey-dove comedy. This has those features, but presents a dry humor that is normally missing in the romantic comedies. Friends with Benefits is hilarious for both men and women, romantics and cynics alike. Of course, this is designed to play to the more romantic crowd; but even the least romantic of guys will find funny experiences in the movie.
The quality of presentation is carried over into the movie’s Blu-ray format. I won’t go into detail about the Blu-ray experience, since there was nothing really special about it. This also means that the presentation was adequate in showing crisp color and high definition scenes expected from a modern Blu-ray movie; without any glaring faults in the rendering process. However, one of the most clever things about the Blu-ray was the loading screen. It was quite clever and the few times I saw it, I could not help but laugh. Honestly, this made waiting on the different options to load quite enjoyable.
Along with all of this, the special features on the Blu-ray for Friends with Benefits are astounding. Of course, as with many of these releases there are a number of deleted scenes included in the Blu-ray. The Blu-ray also includes a number of outtakes that truly provided more than a few chuckles. A video commentary was also included, including the director Will Gluck, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis all sitting together. These three influential individuals provided a lot of insight into the movie making.
If you have purchased the Blu-ray rather than the DVD, like I did, there are a bunch of other special features. The first of these is a featurette describing what it was like for the actors making the movie. Frankly, this was one of the most unique and intriguing aspects of the special features. Also, there is a bonus section describing how they made the flash mob scenes in the movie. Spoiler, there are flash mobs in Friends with Benefits. Seeing the detail that went into this greatly increased the respect that I had for this movie. Finally, there is another version of Friends with Benefits included on the Blu-ray that includes a number of pieces of random pop-up trivia. I am a huge random trivia person, so this was an amazing find.
In short the Blu-ray version of Friends with Benefits enhances an already great movie. Yes, I would warn against letting the very young, or easily offended, see it for sexual reasons. However, it is extremely funny in a dry, witty sort of way. This makes the movie perfect for romantics and cynics alike. On top of this, all of the Blu-ray features and detail create an experience that cannot be passed up.
