thoughts on movie snacks, previews, and Friends With Benefits (some spoilers)

1) Girl working at movie concession stand: "Can I help you?"

Me: "Yes, I'd like a small popcorn and a cherry Icee, please."

Her: (Walks away to check Icee machine, then returns) "I'm sorry, the cherry Icees are still mixing. The blue raspberry and orange ones are ready, if you'd like one of those instead."

Me: "THEY MAKE ORANGE ICEES?! SINCE WHEN?! SIGN ME UP!" (Actually, I'm pretty sure I said something more along the lines of, "Okay, I'll try the orange, please." But I was DARN excited, and it was DARN delicious.)

2) Somehow, I always think that movie popcorn and an Icee will make a perfectly decent meal, only to find myself hungry like half an hour after I leave the movies and completely baffled as to why, since, after all, "I already had lunch." I think I should start eating actual lunch before the movie and forgetting the popcorn. Just thinking out loud here, people.

3) I'm sure they showed several previews at Friends with Benefits, but only two were memorable to me in any way: the preview for the remake of Footloose, and the one for that movie with Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds that may or may not be called The Switch. First of all, I know that some people aren't happy that they remade Footloose, but I gotta say, I was grinning from ear to ear by the end of that preview. It's got Dennis Quaid! And dancing! And I think also singing! I'm going to see it, in other words. Probably the weekend it comes out. Also, I'm pretty sure I've talked about the Jason Bateman/Ryan Reynolds preview before, but I'll address it, anyway: I like Jason Bateman, sort of. I like Ryan Reynolds, sort of. I like body switching movies A LOT. However, I will probably not see this movie on the grounds that it "looks gross," and I say that based on the fact that there is both farting and baby poop in the preview. Do with that what you will.

4) So. Friends with Benefits. It's directed by Will Gluck, who also directed Easy A. It is like Easy A in that it starts off really enjoyable and fun and then gets more serious as the characters have to deal with the consequences of what they did in the enjoyable/fun part and (in the case of Friends with Benefits) as we start delving more deeply into the characters' lives/problems. I found myself wishing, in the case of this movie, that it would have stayed more enjoyable/fun, and I don't feel like the shift in tone completely worked.

For example: we learn late in the movie that Dylan's (Justin Timberlake's character) father (played by Richard Jenkins, known best to me as the father from Six Feet Under) has Alzheimer's. In the context of the movie, this is supposed to be sad, and the fact that Dylan never told Jamie (Mila Kunis) about him is supposed to be evidence of how emotionally closed-off Dylan is. Later, when Dylan does learn to deal with this in a mature way (as opposed to pretending it isn't happening or trying to "fix" it), it's presented as a sign that Dylan is maturing. All of this is, I guess, necessary to the plot and to Dylan's character development. However, the Alzheimer's is also (if only to a small extent) played for laughs, which I didn't care for. For example: when we first meet Dylan's father, he has a conversation with Jamie that establishes that he gets confused about who people are, and that he doesn't remember some significant events that happened in the recent past. This conversation is shot so that you can only see the actors from the waist up. When he walks away, we see that...he isn't wearing any pants, and hasn't been throughout the whole conversation. Really? I don't doubt that this could and would actually happen; I just didn't like that the way it was revealed was meant to elicit laughter. Also, I felt like this storyline was almost more than the movie could handle. Like I said, I get that there needed to be something to show the source of Dylan's emotional/commitment issues; I just didn't like the "something" they chose.

I also don't really believe it's as simple as the movie would have us believe. Dylan tells Jamie early in the movie that he is emotionally unavailable; she tells him that she is emotionally damaged. Her emotional damage, the movie tells us, comes from the fact that she never knew her father and that not only could her mother never sustain a long-term, committed relationship, but that she was and is never there for Jamie in the way that Jamie needs her to be. The thing is, while I found myself relating fairly strongly to both Dylan and Jamie and their situation (being friends, realizing that there might be more than friendship there, but being reluctant to do anything about that realization), I just don't feel like in real life that it's so easy to point at one life event or one person and be like, "Oh, okay, THAT'S the reason they're emotionally unavailable. Once they deal with that, everything will be fine." It bugged me that the sources of their issues were so obvious.

However, in spite all of that, I did enjoy aspects of this movie quite a bit. There were some funny parts; like, at one point, when Jamie suggests that their relationship is a little "college-y," Dylan suggests that maybe he should sing some Third Eye Blind, then, only to break into..."Closing Time," by Semisonic. ("That's not a Third Eye Blind song." "I'm pretty sure that it is.") The dialogue was delivered in a very rapid-fire way, and there was some good physical comedy, as well, coming from MORE THAN ONE flash mob (which you all know I love), and from Jamie actually jumping onto a baggage carousel at one point to retrieve a lost sign. I really liked both Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis in this movie, as well as Patricia Clarkson as Jamie's flighty mother. (I did NOT, however, like Jenna Elfman as Dylan's sister, who, when Dylan and his father talk about basketball, in one scene, and baseball, in another, sits there loudly repeating, "WE GET IT. YOU'RE GUYS. YOU LIKE SPORTS," OVER AND OVER AGAIN. This is supposed to be charming and funny, I think. In reality, it is annoying.) I thought that Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis both really did a good job of capturing two people who just have way more fun with each other than with anyone else. There was also some randomly funny stuff, like how Dylan is RIDICULOUSLY bad at math (like, at one point he tries to multiply six times three and comes up with 92). Finally, I liked all of the discussions about movies and movie love; like, at one point I noticed Mila Kunis's hairstyle and thought to myself, "I wish I was better at doing hair," and then like five minutes later Jamie says how she wishes her life was a movie because "her hair would always be perfect."

So...bottom line, I had a couple of issues with it, but enjoyed it overall.