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Which is Better?

While I think I have made it abundantly clear that I prefer Friends with Benefits to No Strings Attached, I am willing to acknowledge that this is a personal preference, and that some people will be less enticed by what Friends has to offer. If you are looking for a more traditional rom-com that is still able to spice things up, then Strings will be more up your alley. To make an analogy to horror films, Friends is to Strings as The Cabin in the Woods is to Saw.

What holds both films back is that they are too willing to compromise. Both want to give the audiences something new while still allowing them the comfort of consuming a product that fits comfortably within the rom-com framework. Friends does take more liberties with this, but neither take any risks. If Strings wants you to have your cake and eat it too, Friends wants to shove the cake in your face, which means that you still get to eat your cake, just in a somewhat unconventional way.

The strongest case for why Friends is the better film is the ending. While Strings has the traditional “now we are in love and are going to be together forever” denouement, Friends ends with a more complicated message. Dylan and Jamie acknowledge that they are not perfect, that they have not magically overcome their character flaws over the last 90 minutes, and that they are, in general, both pretty screwed up. The ending is not them deciding to live happily ever after, but rather that they are going to remain friends, and if that leads to more sexy times, or to a relationship, so be it.

It is not the simple, straightforward solution that most rom-coms deliver with a bow, and the message is that in a society where people have sex without being in a relationship, it is much more difficult to have simple answers to complicated questions. In that respect Friends is far more modern than Strings, because it acknowledges that the old formula doesn't really work anymore. If Friends with Benefits is not great, it is at least speaking honestly to its audience, which is far more than can be said of No Strings Attached.

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