A 2011 Romantic Comedy starring Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis and Woody Harrelson.Jamie is a headhunter ("I prefer corporate recruiter") who lures Dylan, a website art director, to New York to interview for GQ. He takes the job and the pair become close friends, eventually agreeing to have sex — just sex, with no further attachment — while they're on a break from romance. They both go through a few other people in the film and deal with issues surrounding their parents, and the ending actually comes off as refreshing and real rather than obvious and contrived like most of its genre.Generally critically praised, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 71%, with frequent mentions given to its realistic story, the chemistry and charisma of its leads, and of course, the entertainment value. It's frequently compared favorably to Scream 1996 with its self-aware characters and poking fun at its own genre.
Affectionate Parody: The two leads mock many conventions of traditional romantic comedies and even when Dylan stages a 'movie like reconcillation at the climax' he says how impractical it is in real life. The movie still follows the same format and ends the same way.
The fake and cheesy romantic comedy the leads watch continually throughout the movie however is a Take That towards the genre as a whole.
California Doubling: Mocked extensively via the Show Within a Show Dylan and Jamie watch together, among other things that are mocked in that show ("Oh, look, the Empire State Building! Oh, look, the Statue of Liberty!")
Freudian Excuse: Both Dylan and Jamie's issues are directly connected to their parents' disastrous attempts at love.
Gallows Humor: Dylan's father jokes about his Alzheimer's:
Dylan: Did Annie (Dylan's sister) put you up to this?
Dylan's father: Who's Annie? (Dylan looks shocked) I'm kidding. What, I can't joke about this?
Dylan: Jesus Christ, dad.
Dylan's father: I don't know what else to do.
Genre Savvy: Where a lot of the movie's comedy and deconstruction comes from.
Idealized Sex: Averted at first: there's a lot of direction and negative reactions, and Dylan has to stop once because he has to pee. Played straight later, when Dylan and Jamie have sex during the visit to Dylan's family.
Dylan: Of course it's me! You can't say that! You're breaking up with me!
Kayla: It's not, it's me! I don't like you anymore!
Jizzed in My Pants: Dylan jokes about it. He mentions that he sneezes when he has an orgasm; later, when he's making out with Jamie, he sneezes in her face.
Mood Whiplash: It's all frothy fun and games and witty repartee, until Dylan's dad, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, is introduced. Then the scene dives straight into awkward and heartbreaking.
The Mountains of Illinois: Parodied in the film-within-a-film Jamie and Dylan watch. The characters are riding in a horse-drawn carriage, pointing out New York landmarks with rows of palm trees clearly visible in the background.
Averted by the movie itself in that all scenes were shot in either New York or Los Angeles. However the interior of the New York GQ offices were a set in LA and although they were in NY, the Empire State Building behind Mila in the opening scene was digitally painted in.
Fun fact: this was the first movie that actors were allowed on the actual Hollywood Sign.
Mistaken for Gay: Tommy assumes Dylan is gay when they first meet, and keeps asking Dylan if he is sure that he's not gay.
Not Staying for Breakfast: Parker, the guy who Jamie starts dating after her she and Dylan stop having sex attempts to do this. Unfortunately for him, Jamie wakes up before him, and catches him on the street.
Parents Walk In At The Worst Time: Jamie's mother walks on his daughter and Dylan having sex. Dylan and Jamie are creeped out, but she isn't.
Dylan insists that "Closing Time" is by Third Eye Blind, until the final scene when he finds out it's actually Semisonic.
Also Jamie blinks when she curses, and Dylan talks about how modern planes "practically land themselves" everytime he is on a plane. In a later scene this is shown to have been picked up from his father.
Say My Name: Played for laughs when Dylan and Jamie first have sex:
Dylan: Say my name.
Jamie: Dylan Francis Harper Jr.
Dylan: Not my full name.
Jamie: Sorry, I had to fill out a lot of your paperwork.
Saw A Woman In Half: Dylan's nephew, Sam, who wants to be a magician, attempts to do this trick with Jamie. From the box, she overhears Dylan's harsh remarks about her.
At the beginning, after Jamie's boyfriend broke up with her, she says: "I really have to stop buying into this bullshit Hollywood cliché of true love. (sees a poster for The Ugly Truth) Shut up, Katherine Heigl, you stupid liar!"
Dylan's girlfriend breaks up with him right before they're supposed to go to a John Mayer concert. He remarks: "Thank you for doing this before the concert, by the way. Best breakup ever." Later, when she mentions to Jamie that his ex-girlfriend loves John Mayer, she pretends to retch.
After Dylan and Jamie end their "friends with benefits" arrangement, they go out for a walk and both try to pick up someone. Dylan notes that the woman he noticed is reading a book. Jamie responds: "It's probably Nicholas Sparks."
This may not have been intentional, but Dylan constantly defends himself by saying "liking Harry Potter doesn't make you gay!" The film came out a week after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two, and subsequently lost a lot of potential moviegoers to the final Harry Potter film.
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