'No Strings Attached': A career mistake for Natalie Portman?

Some critics say following up her acclaimed turn in "Black Swan" with a frivolous romantic comedy could derail the actress' Oscar hopes

In "No Strings Attached," Natalie Portman plays a med-school student who uses her friend (Ashton Kutcher) for sex.
(Image credit: Paramount Pictures)

Natalie Portman is widely seen as an Oscar front-runner for her grueling, critically acclaimed, Golden Globe-winning performance in Black Swan. But some are viewing her latest film, the flimsy romantic comedy No Strings Attached — co-starring Ashton Kutcher and out this weekend — as an ill-advised departure from her typically higher-brow work. (Watch the No Strings Attached trailer.) Will the timing of her new movie, smack in the middle of awards season, compromise her status as a "serious" actress or even cost her an Oscar?

Yes, this movie could ruin her future prospects: Natalie Portman had a career breakthrough with Black Swan and is on-track for an Oscar nomination, says Rex Reed in The New York Observer. And now, No Strings Attached "could destroy everything." This "unforgivable bore" suffers from a "moronic screenplay" and she should have done everything possible to stop its release, "short of breaking into the editing lab and destroying the negative."

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