‘Friends with Benefits’ manages to charm despite familiar plot

Didn't we just see this movie? Yes and no.

That's because "Friends With Benefits" has the same basic premise as "No Strings Attached," which arrived in theaters in late January.

You know the drill: Young, attractive friends agree to add sex to the relationship equation, only to discover that an annoying little complication called love keeps getting in the way of all the unbridled lust.

Each movie also has its own "Black Swan" co-star to confuse things even more, with Oscar-winner Natalie Portman headlining "No Strings Attached" (opposite Ashton Kutcher) and Mila Kunis joining Justin Timberlake as the title "Friends With Benefits."

Well, Portman may have the Oscar -- but Kunis has the better friends-with-benefits movie.

Indeed, there are times when "Friends With Benefits" actually sparkles. Sort of.

Not in the way that romantic comedies of Hollywood's golden age once gleamed, mind you. No one would ever mistake the Timberlake-Kunis team for, say, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.

Still, considering the sorry state of most contemporary romantic comedies, the fact that "Friends With Benefits" boasts more than a smidgen of wit alongside its inevitable raunchy comedy -- to say nothing of its sappy sentimentality -- ranks as cause for (muted) applause.

Credit co-writer and director Will Gluck , who sidesteps some tired rom-com banalities almost as neatly as his "Easy A" danced around teen-movie cliches last year.

At least until "Friends With Benefits" succumbs to the same old bromides it ridicules for much of the movie.

Maybe its makers can't tell the difference. Or maybe they just don't care.

Either way, by the time it happens, we already like the movie's dynamic duo enough to stomach such a glaring miscalculation.

When we first meet Jamie (Kunis) and Dylan (Timberlake), she's a New York-based headhunter and he's an L.A.-based graphics guy who'd be perfect for the art director gig she's trying to fill at GQ magazine.

Dylan's inclined to stay in L.A., but Jamie's determined to sell him on life in the Big Apple. Which, inevitably, she does. (Otherwise, there would be no movie.)

Turns out they have a lot in common, from recent breakups to problematic parents. His straight-arrow dad (the always-solid Richard Jenkins) is battling Alzheimer's, while her flaky mom (Patricia Clarkson, who also played Mom in "Easy A") is still stuck in the '70s.

Little wonder Jamie and Dylan become best pals. (Otherwise, there would be no movie.)

Together, they wander the sidewalks of New York and share snarky laughs while watching a particularly grating romantic comedy (titled "I Love New York, I Love You," featuring an unbilled Jason Segel and Rashida Jones) that demonstrates precisely how ridiculously overwrought pop-culture depictions of love can be.

Dylan and Jamie are far more practical. And far more mature (or so they think), secure in the knowledge that once they surrender to undeniable mutual horniness, they'll be able to maintain their friendship without allowing deeper emotions to surface.

So far, so good. Particularly in the early going, as the movie wins over the audience with snappy banter and a refreshingly tart 'tude.

It's when the complications kick in (and "Friends With Benefits" starts turning into "I Love New York, I Love You") that heart-tugging sighs start competing for screen time with smart, sassy laughs.

Working from a script by co-writers Keith Merryman and David A. Newman, director Gluck keeps the comedic wheels spinning as long as he can. Alas, not even he can zoom through the movie's stickier moments, many of them involving Dylan's beleaguered dad and his constant caretaker, Dylan's sister Annie (Jenna Elfman).

It figures that Annie would have an adorably precocious son ("Modern Family's" Nolan Gould). It also figures there would be no sign of the kid's father -- or any other indication that she has a life of her own. Then again, she doesn't really need one (at least not according to the filmmakers), because she's not a character, she's a plot device.

So is scene-stealing rascal Woody Harrelson, having a blast as GQ's mucho macho, unambiguously gay sports editor -- a take-off on the gay best friend who always seems to show up in these kinds of movies.

But leave it to the invaluable, inimitable Clarkson (who played Timberlake's mother in the "Saturday Night Live" digital short "Motherlover") to bring rueful depth to her role as an erstwhile flower child who's never quite figured out how to play the responsible parent.

No wonder her daughter's so commitment-phobic -- an impulse Kunis (who earned some Oscar buzz for "Black Swan") captures with subtle skill, burying it under layers of defiant bachelor-girl bravado.

And Timberlake, who earned Oscar buzz himself for his "Social Network" performance as Napster high-flyer Sean Parker, continues his climb toward leading-man status, handling the comedy with definite flair.

He has a bit more trouble when he has to get a teensy bit serious, but by the time he does, we're all friends of "Friends With Benefits." And, as such, we're more than willing to make a few allowances for friends.

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.