Kevin Kline: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Alvin - No Strings Attached (2011)

Speaking of out-of-place Kline, his role in the 2011 Ashton Kutcher/Natalie Portman vehicle No Strings Attached would seem an equally random choice as his role in Soapdish. Here he is mostly a minor character, playing the cheating (why is Kline always cheating?), devil-may-care father of Ashton Kutcher's character Adam. He lifts weights, he plays piano, he delivers a few lines, and then the movie ends - that's about the extent of the enjoyment to be had here, and Kline doesn't really seem to be having any much more fun than we are. You would think his involvement, however minor, would be touted so as to lend some credibility to the movie among filmgoers who aren't Kutcher fans. "Kevin Kline's in it," they'd think, "so it mustn't be a total loss." But his name is nowhere to be found on the posters and the poor guy doesn't even make the trailer. Ludacris makes the trailer, for goodness sake. Twice. No Strings Attached was directed by the once-promising Ivan Reitman - director of Stripes, Ghostbusters, and the 1993 Kline comedy Dave. Again, Kline has a penchant for working with collaborators multiple times, but there is very obviously no chance that No Strings Attached would have success attempting to replicate any magic Reitman and Kline found with Dave. But they could have at least tried.