Silly ‘Strings’

Those who thought Natalie Portman cut loose in her brilliant turn as a tortured ballerina in Black Swan were even more surprised in January when she starred with Ashton Kutcher in her first outright comedy, No Strings Attached. Out now on DVD, Ivan Reitman directs the film and Portman plays an overworked, under-appreciated young woman with a physical crush on her best bud. One night they decide to try to be just friends with benefits without being emotionally ensnared into something more, something complicated. But as they spend more time together, they realize that keeping such strict boundaries on their emotions might be harder than abstaining ever proved to be. Greta Gerwig, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Kline and Olivia Thirlby co-star. Rated R.