Valentine's Day New Release: No Strings Attached

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the quality of the movies I've been watching lately, so I had to go clear my head and laugh and cheer, so I went to watch my girl-crush Natalie Portman hang out with Ashton Kutcher.  No Strings Attached is a predictable romantic comedy.  A pair of acquaintances (they met at camp when they were kids, and have only hung out once since) decide they really need to be having more sex, and decide they should have it with each other.  However, it's meant to be an emotion-free "relationship" with no claims on one another. But pretty much anyone could predict how that will go, and it totally does, but the ride is worth it. 

This movie doesn't break new ground on the "sex leads to feelings and possibly a relationship" cliche, but that doesn't mean it's not great fun to watch.  A lot of movies that take on the "sex only" storyline and flip it that the guy falls in love with a cold disinterested girl (500 Days of Summer - sort of), so that it's not the mushy girl falling for the  player guy all the time.  Alternatively, they attempt to tell the story by being really raunchy (The Sweetest Thing, My Best Friend's Girl) which often falls flat or just goes too far into gross.  No Strings Attached attempts to ride the line between both with some raunch, but Ashton Kutcher is also able to be manly and sensitive at the same time (usually the male lead in rom-coms is too much of one or the other) - he makes Portman a "period mix-CD" full of inappropriate, but really funny songs.  Portman attempts to be the emotion-less one, but of course gets jealous when she pushes him away to other girls.

Basically, I just liked this.  There are a lot of really funny moments, the trailer didn't give anything away you wouldn't get from the first 10 minutes (or from hundreds of other rom-coms). I honestly laughed out loud a dozen times (thanks to Kevin Klein and Mindy Kaling - oh, and a weird tiny role by a fat Cary Elwes?), and it had to be one of the best movie-going experiences in the last month.  The theater was full of women and couples and just about everyone seemed to be having a great time.  4 of 5 stars/lambs