No Strings Attached

I wonder if Ashton Kutcher's agent negotiated a nudity clause for this one. If so, it must have been brief (smile) because we see LOTS of Ashton....

A romantic comedy has certain predictable touchstones:

• Meet cute. Here two kids meet at a grade-school summer camp.
• Meet again later. Here two young adults go directly to bed.
• Try to avoid a relationship. Here it is strictly physical because she's very gun-shy.
• Need I go on?
  

This little R-rated frolic has several things going for it:

• Ashton Kutcher ("Killers") plays a decent and upbeat TV producer with aspirations to be a writer. In real life, Kutcher is a producer and a writer, plus he seems to handle celebrity pretty well. In college he studied biochemical engineering, so he isn't a one-trick pony...AND he's nice looking.
• Natalie Portman ("Black Swan") is an uptight doctor, determined to remain single and self sufficient. Portman is another person who has used her brains (she graduated from Harvard) as well as her uncommon beauty.
• Kevin Kline ("The Extra Man") is Kutcher's father, a well-known TV personality romping through a mid-life crisis. Besides an Oscar, Kline brings Broadway pizazz to his roles (two Tony awards) so he's only slightly wasted in this role.
  

You will see other familiar faces and will (I hope) appreciate the insight brought to this script. When three women room together, naturally their cycles synchronize so they all suffer PMS at the same time. Guys in the know understand this and bring cupcakes!

This classic rom-com has a couple of really nice people to root for; I liked it.