Friends With Benefits. Directed by Will Gluck. Starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis.
Rating: 5 (out of 10)
Dont have sex with your friends. Dont have friends with your sex. This is the message to take away from Friends With Benefits, the umpteenth film to tackle the question. Different actors, different panties, same conclusion. The panty-wearers this time round are triple-threat Justin Timberlake (star of song, screen and viral videos) and Mila Kunis (who last got naked with Natalie Portman in Black Swan).
Timberlake plays Dylan, an L.A. webmag designer who gets head-hunted by Jamie (Kunis) to be GQs New York art editor. After having been burned before, both sides endeavor to be like George Clooney sex, with no permanent ties. When Jamie and Dylan discover that theyre on the same page they waste no time in hopping into the sack. The only problem about demystifying sex is that they skip the unknowns and head straight into married territory, talking about their day and current events during the act. And soon after they talk turkey (sandwiches, that is) the sex-bickering thing gets irritating. There are side plots explaining how the duo ended up this way Jamies mom (Patricia Clarkson) is a promiscuous free-spirit and Dylan has mommy abandonment issues but mostly we just get to see a lot of JTs ass.
And while the film goes out of its way to make fun of formulaic romantic comedies via a cheesy movie-within-a-movie starring Jason Segel and Rashida Jones it inevitably falls into the same traps, complete with the grand gesture and bended knee. Strong supporting players (Clarkson, the excellent Richard Jenkins) and bits by Emma Stone, Andy Samberg, snowboarder Shaun White, Jenna Elfman and Woody Harrelson nevertheless fail to make Friends With Benefits memorable.
Sarahs Key. Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner. Starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Frederic Pierrot and Aidan Quinn.
Rating: 8 (out of 10)
A mystery, a historical tragedy and a family drama rolled into one, Sarahs Key shifts between 1942 and 2009, as American-born reporter Julia (Kristin Scott Thomas) delves into one of the darkest periods in recent French history. During the Second World War, more than 13,000 Jews, mostly women and children, were rounded up and held in inhumane conditions in the Vel dHiv velodrome before being transported to camps. As Julias apartment is renovated, the history is made all-too-real: her French inlaws bought the apartment when a Jewish family was flushed out.
Sarah (Melusine Mayance) was a young girl when her family was snatched by French police trying to make German quotas. The film finds the perfect balance between Sarahs horrific past and Julias present day struggles with her distant husband (Frederic Pierrot) and teenage daughter.
Scott Thomas, a resident of France, has no problem with the French language that runs throughout (most of the film is subtitled), and her performance is riveting. An equally moving performance by young French actress Melusine Mayance makes the films most poignant scenes heart-wrenching. A succinct and carefully crafted adaptation of Tatiana De Rosnays best-seller. No extras on the standard disc.
