Just Friends is a 2005 romantic comedy film directed by Roger Kumble, starring Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart and Anna Faris.
Chris (Reynolds), an obese and good-hearted teenager is humiliated when his unrequited love for his best friend, the beautiful cheerleader Jamie (Smart), is publicly exposed. A decade later, the now-adult Chris is a fit, handsome and slick ladykiller and successful record producer in Los Angeles who is forced by his boss to escort lunatic pop diva Samantha James (Faris) to Paris. When Samantha accidentally causes the plane to catch fire, they are forced to land in Chris's hometown where he soon re-encounters Jamie...
This movie contains examples of:
- All Men Are Perverts: Almost all the men talk about is intimacy. Almost every character motivation is sex driven. Mike's whole character is wanting sex from Samantha.
- All Women Are Lustful: Jaime, downplayed and Samantha, exaggerated.
- Amusing Injuries
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Chris's teenage brother Mike.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension
- Between Chris and Jaime and between Samantha and Mike. Chaos tends to prevent anything from happening.
- Big Damn Kiss
- Both aforementioned couples experience one; the built up tension between Mike and Samantha is resolved via vehement snog while Chris and Jaime have a more gentle, romantic kiss at the end.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Dusty Dinkleman.
- Brick Joke: "Hello, Joyce?"
- Cloudcuckoolander: Samantha and Chris's mother. The latter is merely a bit spacey while the former is near psychotic.
- Covers Always Lie: While the main plot does feature a Love Triangle, Anna Faris's character is not part of it - she has a thing for Chris but he is never even slightly attracted to her (at least not since they broke up after briefly dating a while back during the time skip after Chris left home)
- Deadpan Snarker: Chris. Well, he is being played by Ryan Reynolds.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Subverted; while the abuse is played for laughs, its made clear that this is just not healthy behaviour, and Chris calls Samantha out on her abusive antics when he finally decides to stop pretending to like her for his job. It's this realization that also makes him realize his own sexist actions concerning Jamie.
- Dumb Blonde: Samantha in contrast to the intelligent, grounded Jamie.
- Entitled to Have You: At times, Chris acts this way; part of Chris' Character Development is realizing that this is not how he should act towards Jamie.
- Dusty; as she never reciprocated his feelings during High School, he feels it's completely justified to use Jamie for sex now as 'revenge', and even mistakes Chris, who is legitimately attracted to her, for doing the same. He even has the audacity to use the song he 'wrote for her' (in actuality, a song he wrote that he uses on every girl, merely changing the name to compliment them) as a way to guilt trip her into dating him.
- First Kiss: Chris and Jaime, Samantha and Darla, Samantha and Mike.
- Formerly Fat: The film's prologue shows that Chris was fat in high school and loses the weight during the Time Skip to the present day.
- Groin Attack: Repeatedly - Chris by an oxygen tank in the ambulance; Mr. Palomino (Jamie's dad) by a falling reindeer from his Christmas display; Chris by Samantha and her tazer gun.
- Happy-Ending Massage: Subverted; Mike massages Samantha's nude back but Chris interrupts the moment.
- Hopeless Suitor: Chris was this Jamie in high school.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Mike manages to shoot Samantha in the ass with her own Tazer gun.
- Jerk Jock: Tim. Ten years after high school, he's seen hanging around the bar, balding and still wearing his letter jacket.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Chris. Though the 'Heart of Gold' part might not be so obvious at first. To be fair, the jerk part is basically a defense mechanism after Jamie rejects him at the beginning of the film.
- Just Friends: It's the title and premise. An entire hour-and-a-half movie dedicated to this trope and the hopes of the main protagonist subverting it.
- Last Note Nightmare: the full version of the "Forgiveness" song ends with the sound of whooshing, clock bells tolling and Anna Faris repeating the word "Time" over and over in a distorted voice. Heard at the end of the credits.
- Lust Object: Many characters are this to each other: Jaime for Dusty and Chris, Chris for Samantha and Jaime and Samantha for Mike.
- A Man Is Always Eager: Chris and Mike. Regardless of what situation they're in with their crush, sex is their motivation.
- Not Good with Rejection: Samantha towards Chris. She tasers him in the groin when he tries to reject her.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: Mike after his kiss with Samantha.
- The Prima Donna: Samantha.
- Revenge of the Nerd: Chris has this attitude to Jamie at times. Dusty has this as his plan all along.
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: A rare case where the good(ish) guy is the rich suitor.
- Rule of Funny: Chris wedgied his brother so hard that he tore his underpants completely off.
- Sibling Rivalry: Chris and Mike's squabblings are most of the film's highlights.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Definitely Samantha.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: Chris decides to give up his Entitled to Have You attitude with Jamie, and is willing to just be her friend. She turns out to be in love with him, anyway.
- Thicker Than Water: Subverted; Mike's hilarious betrayal of Chris to Samantha
- Teens Are Monsters: Virtually Chris' whole class including Jaime. Downplayed somewhat with Mike.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Chris to Jamie.
- Yandere: Samantha.
- You Fight Like a Cow: Chris taunts Jamie that she slaps like a cheerleader. She punches him out.
