Courtney Howard // Film Critic
NO HARD FEELINGS
Rated R, 1 hour and 43 minutes
Directed by: Gene Stupnitsky
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Laura Benanti, Matthew Broderick, Natalie Morales, Scott MacArthur, Zahn McClarnon, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Kyle Mooney, Amalia Yoo, Hasan Minhaj
By now, we all know Jennifer Lawrence can be genuinely funny. This is the woman who joked her Golden Globe was engraved “I beat Meryl,” quoting a line from FIRST WIVES CLUB. She’s also delivered her fair share of droll dialogue on-screen in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, DON’T LOOK UP and – throwing it back further – on the sitcom The BILL ENGVALL SHOW. But now she gets to dig down deep, starring in her very own raunch-com, NO HARD FEELINGS. Along the same lines as THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY and BAD TEACHER, this ribald, raucous riot combines laughs and a little bit of heart to make its story about two characters stuck in immobile emotional states soar.
32-year-old Maddie (Lawrence) is currently having a tough go at life. Scrounging to make ends meet after the death of her mother, whose cozy Montauk home she’s attempting to keep financially afloat, she’s taken two jobs and is not succeeding at either particularly well. Bartending at a local restaurant puts her in direct contact with the insufferably entitled millionaires driving up her yearly property taxes. And her gig as an Uber driver – where she banks enough in the summer months to pay her outstanding bills – is about to be over when her car is repo’d. Her friends Sara (Natalie Morales), Jim (Scott MacArthur) and lawyer (Zahn McClarnon) are at a loss for advice.
That is until Jim spots an ad on Craigslist (the place where the idea for this film actually originated) requesting a 20-something woman date a wealthy couple’s socially awkward, painfully shy 19-year-old son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) before he leaves for Princeton in the fall. In return, the lucky lady selected will receive a gently used Buick. Desperately needing a car and not above using her quick-wit and body, Maddie meets with Percy’s kind parents Laird (Matthew Broderick) and Allison (Laura Benanti) who are worried about their son’s well-being as he no friends and no other interests except videogames and volunteering at a pet shelter. Though she’s older than the ad stated (her age being this film’s long running gag), Maddie assures them she’s the perfect person to break Percy out of his shell. And since she’s the only one who responded to the ad, she’s chosen. Hijinks and hilarity ensue.
Lawrence is made for this type of irreverence. Whether it be through the fast-talking repartee, landing the script’s hilariously apropos and inelegant double-entendres, or the cringe-com birthed out of her clumsily jiggly physicality, her top-tier performance elevates the material. Her EASTERN PROMISES-inspired fight on the beach is one for the books, but she’s even better when heightening the inherent silliness in seduction, lap-dancing to Nelly’s “Hot in Here,” skootching a wrong-height seat closer to her mark and breaking down a door to get to her date. She and Feldman share an incredibly effervescent chemistry. His gawky exterior hides an endearing vulnerability and a grounded sense of authenticity that wonderfully counterbalances the picture’s more uproarious leanings. Like his co-star, he too gets moments to shine, clinging to a car hood nude and singing a ballad-fied version of Hall & Oates’ “Maneater.”
Yet, for as much as director-co-writer Gene Stupnitsky and co-writer John Phillips’ focus is well-trained on a woman exercising her agency (sexual and whatnot), tackles consent organically and contains solid anti-gentrification, anti-wealthy sentiments, it’s a shame the root of their female protagonist’s problems are superficial, rote “daddy issues.” These directly inform her internalized commitment issues and external stakes to keep ahold of the house and differ her dreams. Pacing also proves to be adversarial as the unrelenting gags frontload the first 2/3rds of the picture and the 3rd act experiences tonal fluctuations, from the inevitable “you lied to me” moment on to its clunky, cutesy conclusion.
While slight and subdued, perhaps to a fault, the poignancy coaxed out of the pair’s connection as individuals who’d been horribly hurt in their pasts resounds. Charming, endearing and funny AF, this is the Rated-R comedy of the Summer.
Grade: B-
NO HARD FEELINGS opens in theaters on June 23.
