Culturebox: In Hollywood, Friends Always Have Benefits

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culturebox In Hollywood, Friends Always Have Benefits The persistent impossibility of cross-sex friendship in the movies. By Juliet Lapidos Posted Friday, July 22, 2011, at 7:10 AM ET A running conceit in the new romantic comedy Friends With Benefits is that Dylan (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie (Mila Kunis) think romantic comedies are stupid. Romantic comedies posit the existence of true love--how silly! They portray New York in an unrealistic light, providing a tourist's version of the city. When Dylan and Jamie decide to try out a relationship with "no emotions ... just sex" and swear that "whatever happens, we stay friends," they convince themselves that they can pull off this trick because they're real people, not Hollywood figments. I'm not sure if it's a joke or an irony that, aside from the heavy cursing and the shots of Timberlake's bare bottom in fairly graphic sex scenes--you see him clench--Friends With Benefits is every bit as generic as the rom-coms its characters mock. No New Yorker would go from Rockefeller Center to Prince Street for a workday lunch; that's insanity. And I don't think I'm giving too much away by stating that Dylan and Jamie eventually do fall in love. The film draws attention to Hollywood cliches, then stumbles right into them. To continue reading, click here. Juliet Lapidos is a Slate associate editor. Follow her on Twitter. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate If Grover Norquist Gave Republicans the OK To Raise Taxes, Why Aren't They Caving? Hitchens: How the Murdoch Scandal Will Change Britain Did the NFL Players Get a Good Deal?	Advertisement
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