Portman, Kutcher Tackle Friends with Benefits

“We have so much sex in the media that it is dissociated from emotions. We have so much separation between feeling and emotion and the physical side of sex. And they really belong together.”

~ Natalie Portman

by Carson Abrir

Five years after director Ivan Reitman introduced us to a possessive, insecure, jealous woman who refuses to accept the end of a relationship in My Super Ex-Girlfriend, he brings the antithesis to theaters nationwide this weekend in writer Elizabeth Meriwether’s No Strings Attached.

Ashton Kutcher is a TV producer in love with a doctor played by Natalie Portman who wants to be friends with benefits without the obligations of a relationship.

The writer says she wanted the film to honestly reflect today’s dating world.

“I think technology is a huge part of the dating world right now and I wanted to put that in the movie,” Meriwether says. “What does it mean when you text somebody but you don’t call them? What does it mean when you e-mail them or Facebook them? It’s really daunting. People are still figuring it out and the rules haven’t really been written yet.”

Portman hopes No Strings Attached will leave audiences appreciating the important connection between emotional openness and physical closeness.

“We have so much sex in the media that it is dissociated from emotions,” Portman says. “We have so much separation between feeling and emotion and the physical side of sex. And they really belong together.”

Technology, Meriwether adds, comes with new challenges for dating.

“Basically, being single sucks, because you are all like, ‘Oh my God, what does that text mean?’ or ‘What does it mean that he Facebooked me?’ You know, what does a poke on Facebook mean? You shouldn’t have to ask these questions,” she says.

No Strings Attached opens nationwide on Friday, January 21st.

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Showtimes and Tickets for No Strings Attached