No Strings Attached

The super-smart but tragically nerdy kids go to Harvard; the wise-ass geniuses go to Yale. Natalie Portman went to Yale. Therefore, no one should feel at all surprised that Portman can follow a brilliant and breathtaking performance in Black Swan with a charming and lighthearted romp through No Strings Attached. The bitter and brutal ballet movie showed critics and audiences just how smart, sensitive, and psychotic Portman can become when a role demands manic intensity. One critic commented, "She always has been good, but now we know the woman actually can act—except she is so good we forget she is acting." No Strings Attached proves Portman's range, and it satisfies her concern that Hollywood produces far too few "vulgar" comedies for women by women and starring women."No Strings Attached gained director Ivan Reitman's attention when it qualified for the 2009 "Hollywood Blacklist," a studio executive's annual collection of the best scripts that have failed to make the cut at every major studio. The writers pitched No Strings Attached in a single sentence: "A guy and a girl struggle to have an exclusively sexual relationship as they both come to realize they want much more." Although the plot seems painfully thin, irony, sentiment, and humor alloy the script. Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher punctuate and pixelate the post-modern era's answer to Doris Day and Rock Hudson, delivering a sweetly satisfying Valentine's Day confection. Apparently, at Yale, students learn never to take themselves or their obvious brilliance too seriously.