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Just Friends

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For other uses, see Just Friends (disambiguation).

Just Friends
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRoger Kumble
Written byAdam 'Tex' Davis
Produced by
  • Chris Bender
  • J.C. Spink
  • Michael Ohoven
  • William Vince
  • Bill Johnson
Starring
CinematographyAnthony B. Richmond
Edited byJeff Freeman
Music byJeff Cardoni
Production
companies
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • November 23, 2005 (2005-11-23)
Running time
94 minutes
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Box office$50.9 million[3]

Just Friends is a 2005 Christmas romantic black comedy film[4] directed by Roger Kumble, written by Adam 'Tex' Davis and starring Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, Anna Faris, Chris Klein and Christopher Marquette. The plot focuses on a formerly obese high school student (Reynolds) who attempts to free himself from the friend zone after reconnecting with his best friend (Smart), with whom he is in love while visiting his hometown for Christmas. The film revolves around humorous observation of strictly platonic relationships as "just friends" or "just as best friends".

Davis's screenplay for Just Friends was initially optioned in 2001 by New Line Cinema, and was inspired by numerous elements of his own life. Principal photography took place in early 2005 in Los Angeles as well as Regina and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada.[5] The film was an international co-production between the United States, Canada, and Germany.[1]

Just Friends was released on November 23, 2005, and grossed over $50 million. It received mixed reviews from film critics, but has developed a cult following in the years since its release.[6]

Plot

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In 1995, obese high school senior Chris Brander is secretly in love with his classmate and best friend Jamie Palamino. Confessing his feelings by writing in her yearbook, he attends their graduation party. As he returns Jamie's yearbook, it is swapped by her ex-boyfriend, Tim, who reads the declaration aloud to everyone, humiliating Chris. After kissing him on the cheek, Jamie admits she does not reciprocate his affections. He leaves the party in tears, announcing he will never return and vowing to be more successful than everyone else.

Ten years later, a womanizing Chris has lost weight and lives in Los Angeles as a successful record producer and vice president of the company. Before Christmas, company CEO KC asks him to accompany emerging pop singer Samantha James to Paris so she signs with their label, and Chris reluctantly complies. She wants a relationship with him but he has no interest after their only date previously led to his hospitalization. On the way to Paris, Samantha accidentally sets her private jet on fire, causing an emergency landing in New Jersey, near Chris' hometown.

Chris takes Samantha to his mother's for the night and re-engages with his teenage past, including his unresolved feelings for Jamie. She meets his mother and 18-year-old brother Mike, a fan of Samantha. At a bar, he also sees Jamie, working as a bartender to pay for graduate school for teaching. Chris asks Mike to keep Samantha busy during his date with Jamie, but realizing their platonic friendship is important to him hampers his plan for them to have sex. During a friendly ice skating "day date", Chris is taken away in an ambulance after injuring himself during a hockey game. At the scene, Jamie is reunited with Dusty Dinkleman, a paramedic and former high school classmate also in love with her.

Realizing Dusty only wants revenge sex with her, Chris tries to warn Jamie but instead attacks Dusty in front of her. She refuses to listen when he tries to explain. Consequently, he gets drunk and goes to Jamie's bar, finding her there with Dusty. When she gently declines Dusty's sexual advances, he storms out. Chris and Jamie get into another fight, where he blames her for keeping him in the "friend zone" and says she will never amount to anything. Furious, Jamie strikes Chris and he is tossed out.

Upon returning to Los Angeles and rejecting Samantha again, Chris realizes that Jamie is his true love. He returns to New Jersey, declares his love to her and they kiss.

Cast

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Alanis Morissette, then Reynolds' fiancée, made a cameo appearance as "herself" as a former client of his character. This came about when the casting director said "We need an Alanis Morissette type" and Reynolds said he knew someone who would fit. This scene was deleted, however, and is only available on the DVD.[7]

Production

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Development

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Adam 'Tex' Davis wrote the screenplay for Just Friends based on a platonic friendship he had with a young woman in college.[8] The majority of the screenplay, including the familial relationships and New Jersey setting, were drawn from Davis's own life.[8] Davis's manager, Chris Bender, presented the screenplay to New Line Cinema executive Richard Brenner, who was impressed by the screenplay and optioned it for a feature film around 2001.[8] Around 2004, Roger Kumble was hired to direct the project.[8] The film was an international co-production, produced by Bender's production company Benderspink, as well as the German-based Cinerenta and the Canadian company Cinezeta.[1][2]

Casting

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Prior to Reynolds's casting as the lead, Jimmy Fallon and Bradley Cooper were considered for the role of Chris Brenner.[8] Anna Faris was cast as Samantha James; Kumble recalled of casting her: "I met with [Anna] and we grab a coffee and she asks, “What is this character in your mind?” And Tex wrote it, but at the time, it’s Lindsay [Lohan] and Paris [Hilton] and all of them and Britney [Spears] and throw in some amphetamines and put it in a blender and that’s Samantha James. And she totally got it."[8] Hilton herself had auditioned for the role of James at one point.[7]

Chris Klein was cast in the role of Dusty Dinkelman based on his comedic performances in Election and American Pie (both 1999).[8]

Filming

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Just Friends was shot in Los Angeles and parts of Regina and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.[5][9] According to Davis and Kumble, Reynolds and Faris improvised during the filming of many of their scenes together.[8]

Music

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Just Friends
Soundtrack album by
Various artists
ReleasedNovember 22, 2005
Genre
LabelNew Line

A soundtrack was released November 22, 2005 on New Line Records.

Track listing
  1. Ben Lee – "Catch My Disease"
  2. Fountains of Wayne – "Hackensack"
  3. Rogue Wave – "Eyes"
  4. Anna Faris (as Samantha James) – "Forgiveness"
  5. Brendan Benson – "Cold Hands (Warm Heart)"
  6. Robbers on High Street – "Big Winter"
  7. The Sights – "Waiting on a Friend"
  8. Reed Foehl – "When It Comes Around"
  9. The Lemonheads – "Into Your Arms"
  10. 'Just Friends' Holiday Players – "Christmas, Christmas"
  11. "Dusty 'Lee' Dinkleman" – "Jamie Smiles"
  12. Anna Faris (as Samantha James) – "Love from Afar"
  13. Jeff Cardoni – "Just Friends Score Medley"
  14. All-4-One – "I Swear"
  15. Carly Simon – "Coming Around Again"

Original songs performed in the film

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  1. "Forgiveness", performed multiple times by Anna Faris.
  2. "Jamie Smiles", performed multiple times by Chris Klein
  3. "Love from Afar", performed by Anna Faris and Renee Sandstrom
  4. "Just a Guy", performed by Anna Faris (only on the Alternate Ending)

Most songs in the film were written by Adam Schiff, except "When Jamie Smiles", which was written by H. Scott Salinas.

The orchestral score was written by Jeff Cardoni, and orchestrated by Stephen Coleman and Tony Blondal.

Release

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Just Friends was released theatrically in the United States on November 23, 2005, the day before Thanksgiving.[10]

Home media

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New Line Home Entertainment released Just Friends on DVD on March 7, 2006.[11] The initial DVD sales for the film totaled $26,618,828.[12]

In Canada, Alliance Atlantis released a Blu-ray edition on February 2, 2010.[13] The Warner Archive Collection released the film on Blu-ray in the United States on April 8, 2025.[14]

Lawsuit

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In 2011, the film's Canadian financiers sued its international distributor Inferno Distribution, alleging producer William Vince (who died in 2008) had absconded with $3.6 million in Canadian tax shelter credits from the province of Saskatchewan, where much of the film was shot, and that Inferno failed to pay back their promised sum of $7,694,100.[2][15] Cinezeta Internationale had helped finance the film with $9 million in equity funding as well as an additional $9 million in the form of a revolving production loan.[2] A judge ultimately ruled that Inferno pay the $3,427,914.44 shortfall to Cinezeta.[2]

Reception

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Box office

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Just Friends earned $9.3 million during its opening over the Thanksgiving weekend in the United States, ranking number six at the box office.[10] It grossed $32.6 million domestically, and $18.3 million in other territories, for a box office total of $50.9 million.[3]

Critical response

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Just Friends received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 43% of 108 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10. The website's consensus reads: "There are moments of mirth in this overly broad comedy, but mostly, Just Friends is just not that funny."[16] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[18]

Roger Ebert was unimpressed by the film, awarding it a one out of five star-rating.[19] Stephen Holden of The New York Times also disliked the film, writing that it "hangs its crude, clobbering sense of humor on a dubious theory. Once a boy and a girl have entered the "friend zone" in a relationship, there's no turning it into sweet romance. Translated into the movie's loutish high school mentality, that means no you-know-what."[20] Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post noted that Faris "[tries] very hard" playing a "a would-be Courtney Love," but felt Smart was "the best thing in the film," before concluding: "Kumble doesn't have great material, but that's okay, because he's not greatly talented. The director lacks the crazed gift for physical comedy that, say, the Farrelly brothers have, and only a few sequences of shtick really work. I like, however, his lack of sentimentality: Instead of idealizing Chris's relationship with an adoring little brother and a vacant mom, Kumble demonizes them, pushing each deep into violent black humor."[21]

The Boston Globe's Ty Burr praised Faris's performance and likened the film to a "low-rent rip-off of There's Something About Mary," noting that it "reminds this '80s survivor of the rambunctious teen comedies directed by Savage Steve Holland and starring the young John Cusack— films such as Better Off Dead and One Crazy Summer. Those weren't art, and neither is this. But they were cheerful and inventive and sloppily assured—and so is this."[22] Helen O'Hara of Empire gave the film a favorable review, praising Reynolds and Faris's performances.[23] Stella Papamichael of BBC also praised Faris's performance, concluding of the film: "It's not subtle—in fact, at times it's plain unwieldy—but Just Friends is still big on laughs.[24]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Just Friends". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on May 21, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e Gardner, Eriq (October 26, 2011). "'Just Friends' Financier to Recover $3.4 Million After Tax Credit Money Goes Missing". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on February 4, 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Just Friends (2005)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
  4. ^ Keogh, Tom (November 23, 2005). ""Just Friends": Ex-dweeb-returns tale is stale". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on April 10, 2025.
  5. ^ a b "Just Friends (2005) Film Locations". Global Film Locations. January 30, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
  6. ^ Bolling, Gaius (December 24, 2024). "Ryan Reynolds & Anna Faris' Wildly Underrated Christmas Comedy Is a Streaming Hit". MovieWeb. Archived from the original on December 24, 2024.
  7. ^ a b Greco, Patti (August 21, 2024). "8 Facts You Never Knew About Underrated Rom-Com Gem "Just Friends"". Cosmopolitan. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Ihnat, Gwen (December 20, 2020). "The filmmakers behind Just Friends tell the story of their unconventional Christmas classic". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on November 3, 2024.
  9. ^ Seibold, Witney (May 26, 2022). "Filming Just Friends Almost Left Ryan Reynolds Frozen". /Film. Archived from the original on November 2, 2022.
  10. ^ a b Kay, Jeremy (November 26, 2005). "Harry dominates Thanksgiving box office in US". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on April 10, 2025.
  11. ^ Jones, Preston (March 14, 2006). "Just Friends". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on April 10, 2025.
  12. ^ "Just Friends (2005) – Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on February 21, 2025.
  13. ^ "Just Friends Blu-ray (Simplement amis?)". Blu-ray.com. Archived from the original on April 10, 2025.
  14. ^ "Just Friends Blu-ray (Warner Archive Collection)". Archived from the original on April 10, 2025.
  15. ^ Fitzgerald, Patrick (September 7, 2012). "Film Payments Take Stage in Inferno Bankruptcy Drama". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on April 10, 2025.
  16. ^ "Just Friends". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved April 10, 2025. Edit this at Wikidata
  17. ^ "Just Friends". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
  18. ^ "Just Friends". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on September 17, 2017.
  19. ^ Ebert, Roger (November 22, 2005). "All flab, no fun". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on December 12, 2024 – via RogerEbert.com.
  20. ^ Holden, Stephen (November 23, 2005). "Teenage Nightmare: He Likes It Hot, but She Loves It Cordial". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 4, 2024.
  21. ^ Hunter, Stephen (November 23, 2005). "'Just Friends': As a Stocking Stuffer, It Has Potential". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 19, 2015.
  22. ^ Burr, Ty (November 23, 2005). "'Friends' aims low and scores". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017.
  23. ^ O'Hara, Helen. "Just Friends Review". Empire. Archived from the original on May 27, 2024.
  24. ^ Papamichael, Stella (January 4, 2006). "Just Friends". BBC. Archived from the original on August 26, 2022.
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