Friends With Benefits

Right at the start of ‘Friends with Benefits’, Mila Kunis denounces Hollywood movies for peddling clichés about true love. She’s just been dumped by a drip with a peanut allergy and lets rip at a poster for a Katherine Heigl romcom (‘Shut up Katherine Heigl, you stupid liar!’). The script is full of funny, bang-on references like this. And the chemistry between Kunis and her co-star Justin Timberlake is electric.

She is a headhunter who recruits his art director to a swanky job on a New York magazine. Both have sworn off relationships so make a pact: to have a no-strings-attached, sex-only arrangement (swearing an oath on a Bible app). It really is smarter than your average romcom – which is perhaps as much as you can hope for. But we’re never in any doubt as to the central ‘will they or won’t they?’ question. So while it’s probably grumpy to say it, for all its hyper-switched-on, nower-than-nowness it’s hard to see how it’s not just another Hollywood movie peddling true-love clichés.