Not to knock his acting abilities, but it says something about a movie that Chris "Ludacris" Bridges appears as the voice of tact and restraint.
In truth, this is merely another in the growing line of romantic comedies that are woefully short of either comedy or romance, despite Ashton Kutcher's mighty heave at both. Kutcher plays Adam, who works in some non-descript capacity on a Glee-like high school musical TV show, but has aspirations to becoming a writer on the show.
Portman plays Emma, his 'friend' since summer camp who has little outward ambition beyond getting through med school and residency but also has intimacy and commitment phobias. he better part of two hours is spent with Adam trying - then giving up, then trying again - to take the relationship beyond Emma's strict "just sex" policy.
The film's two funniest moments actually involve the brilliant Kevin Kline, who plays Adam's father and a legendary TV host ("Great Scott!"); in the first, Adam finds out that his twice-divorced dad is actually in a hot affair with his ex-girlfriend. The second involves the said couple, along with Adam and Emma, in a restaurant at a birthday dinner that Dad has thrown for his son.
Several other cast members have fleetingly entertaining moments (including Mindy Kalling as Emma's fellow resident and roommate Shira) but Reitman simply will not allow mere crassness to be subdued for too long. Elizabeth Merriweather's script is almost devoid of any real snap and Portman well...she continues the downward slide. Disappointing in Black Swan, she is supremely annoying here. (an interesting aside: Kutcher's character is allowed to go almost full frontal while strenuous efforts are made to avoid any full nude exposure for his female co-star)
Maybe this film was already in the works before Ann Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhall's 'Hollywood Romping Shop' called Love, And Other Drugs. Yeeeeah, riiiight. If you believe that, I have a world-famous bridge I'd like to sell you.
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