Trailer: Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman Try for Sex with No Strings Attached

Ah, the friends with benefits arrangement! You could map Hollywood's version of it out on a chart. First there's the initial bliss, like the couple has mastered a trick that has stumped the human race for generations; then maybe one month later, the guilt and uncertainty slowly sink in; and finally there's that complicating moment where one party breaks the pact and falls in love. In No Strings Attached, Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman are the test subjects in this age-old experiment of sustained commitment-free sex. No prizes for guessing the conclusion, but still, the No Strings Attached trailer looks like it might be a cut above the average romantic comedy.

First, the fact that Portman plays the character who insists on sex and sex only is a nice counterpoint to the usual media stereotype that portrays men as the only sex-starved commitment-phobes. And, while I admit that I've fallen behind on Kutcher's oeuvre lately, he seems to play it pretty low-key here; I certainly wasn't annoyed. Ivan Reitman directs, and while the five or six people who saw My Super Ex-Girlfriend probably have a bone to pick with him, his lifetime pass for Ghostbusters is still valid.

Every plot point is pretty obvious from the trailer, but if that were a problem with romantic comedies, the genre would have died (or at least evolved) by now. Maybe yesterday's trifecta of awful trailers is making me feel generous, but I'm sold.

VERDICT: Sure.