The uneasy tension between the natural and the contrived is embodied in Reitman's well-chosen real L.A. locations. Feelings that can no longer be contained come spewing out in an outdoor mall, backdropped with a blur of neon signs; a relationship fissure opens within the tight corridors of Chris Burden's “Urban Light” installation in front of LACMA. These vibrant emotional duets set within the city’s highly contrived public spaces subtly sketch Los Angeles as a place where the real is often hiding in plain sight among the profoundly synthetic. - The Village Voice
The prospect was iffy at best: a romantic comedy, from a Hollywood studio, with a premise that smacked of "Last Tango in Paris," the scandalous classic in which Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider have a sexual liaison with no strings—or names—attached. Yet the outcome is delightful. "No Strings Attached" doesn't have the overexposed, washed-out look of a studio comedy—the cinematographer was Rogier Stoffers—and doesn't for a moment feel like one. It's a smart, sexy romcom that turns the neat trick of staying sweetly human. - Wall Street Journal
Ivan Reitman has his best outing in decades with “No Strings Attached,” an amusing flip of the “friends with benefits” sex-leads-to-love romantic comedy formula.
It’s a movie benefiting from another sparkling, sexy and emotionally available performance by Natalie Portman, some clever turns in situations and witty banter that isn’t shy about crossing over into “Hangover” level raunchy.
Portman, almost certainly an Oscar nominee for “Black Swan,” carries this movie with her warmth and her wicked way with an incredibly crude come-on. Kutcher is better at bringing the funny that in carrying the emotional weight. Reitman didn’t suddenly evolve into a warmer, deeper filmmaker, either. But the director surrounds his leads with funny people saying witty things.
3 out of 4 stars - Orlando Sentinel
The movie is rated R, but it's the most watery R I've seen. It's more of a PG-13 playing dress-up.
This is a strange film. Its premise is so much more transgressive than its execution. It's as if the 1970s never happened, let alone subsequent decades. Emma and Adam aren't modern characters. They're sitcom characters allowed to go all the way like grown-ups.
Natalie Portman is perhaps about to win an Academy Award for “Black Swan." Why she helped produce this I cannot say. Ambitious actors usually do dreck like this in order to be able to afford to make a movie like “Black Swan." All the same, she does what she can; she has an edge, aggressive timing, and impressive enthusiasm for sex romping.
Of Ashton Kutcher, I have less to say. He seems to be a very nice guy, a little too large for agile romping and still too young for the Brendan Fraser role. When I saw him in “The Butterfly Effect" (2004), I registered that he could act, but in this material, he's essentially just the Male Unit. There is no character there.
2 out of 4 stars - Roger Ebert
Kutcher and Portman have terrific screen physics, using their 12-inch height difference to considerable slapstick effect. He is a galumphing hulk who comes to heel when the munchkin barks at him. Do they have chemistry? Not exactly. But both are such gorgeous animals that their couplings are frisky fun without being sexually explicit. - The Philadelphia Inquirer
How does this film get right what so many get wrong? You're not going to be startled by any redefinition of the entire notion of a romantic comedy here. It's ultimately a pretty simple, direct little movie. Kutcher seems more engaged and engaging than he has in most of his films, and part of that seems to be a matter of chemistry, him reacting to Natalie Portman. I get it. This is the first time we've seen that girl from the Lonely Island rap video in a feature film, the first time she's brought that same foul-mouthed, cheerfully dirty sense of humor out to play for a film. It makes her doubly adorable, and it feels like in her last few films, we're starting to really see what the adult Portman is capable of. She lets her Black Swan fly here, and her sense of giddy joy at what she's doing carries over into the tone of the film itself. She's having a good time, Kutcher's having a good time, and even Ivan Reitman, whose work has been genuinely awful for his last several films, seems to be having a good time. As a result, I did, too, and that simple surprise is enough to make me recommend this one. - Hitfix
In "No Strings Attached," Natalie Portman plays a beautiful doctor interested in sex without commitment.
Yeah, yeah, the line forms over there. But at the front of it is Ashton Kutcher, playing a dopey guy who still believes in love and figures if he works at it enough, he'll get Portman's character to come around, too.
It's an intriguing idea - if you put an actress as wonderfully talented as Portman in what is in many ways another romantic comedy plucked from the assembly line wherever such things are manufactured (well, Hollywood), will it make a difference? The short answer is yes. Portman proves game for just about anything here, the raunchier the funnier. The long answer is still yes, though quite a bit more qualified.
It's not a stretch to say that dippy good guy is a role Kutcher was born to. More intriguing is Portman as a sexually aggressive woman, particularly on the heels of her brilliant performance as a repressed ballet dancer in "Black Swan." The Oscar folks won't come calling for "No Strings Attached," at least not for Portman. But it is a nice little diversion in a career increasingly filled with outstanding performances.
"Strings" is Ivan Reitman's first directing gig since "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" in 2006 (in fact, his son Jason has been in the spotlight more often). He makes good use of comic timing, particularly among those in the supporting cast.
3 out of 5 stars - AZ Central
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