7.2

Jennifer Lawrence Serves up a Surprisingly Heartfelt Hot Mess in No Hard Feelings

By Tara Bennett  |  June 21, 2023 | 1:00pm
Movies Reviews Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence Serves up a Surprisingly Heartfelt Hot Mess in No Hard Feelings

Jennifer Lawrence, why’ve you been holding out on us with your comedic talents? Straight up, the absolute crime that Lawrence has not filled up her IMDb with more big screen comedies is the definitive takeaway from her work in the bawdy but heartfelt comedy No Hard Feelings. As the star and producer, Lawrence not only sells, but carries the film’s silly premise way beyond the sophomoric surface into a far more interesting and resonant space. No Hard Feelings may be marketed as just a raunchy, 2000s-era throwback comedy, but Lawrence and her co-star, Andrew Barth Feldman, elevate it into something more. 

Set in Montauk, New York, Maddie Barker (Lawrence) is a lifelong townie barreling into the summer season with desperate money problems and a ginormous chip on her shoulder regarding the influx of rich New Yorkers invading her quaint town. She’s feeling the disparity between the haves and have-nots more than ever before, as she’s fighting an exorbitant property tax lien on her modest family home and a lack of funds to release her booted car. Without options, Maddie responds to a Craigslist ad placed by wealthy summer residents looking for a 20-something to “date” their painfully shy 19-year-old son Percy (Feldman) before he departs for Princeton in the fall. 

Well beyond that age range, Maddie is nevertheless desperate and rollerblades her way into the vacation home, and trust, of Allison and Laird Becker (Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick). Playing the kind of parent that Ferris Bueller would have mercilessly roasted back in 1986, Broderick gives a delightfully befuddled performance playing a peak helicopter parent alongside an equally funny Benanti. Their “mean-well” behavior towards their only child has been so stifling that they’re only just now seeing the folly of their extremely tight-leash ways with Percy. And Maddie convinces them that she’s the answer to getting the kid to loosen up, sow some oats and navigate the world with some confidence. 

But Maddie isn’t prepared for the challenge that is Percy. Essentially a shut-in with a social life that exists entirely online, Percy is an extreme case of social anxiety, awkwardness and no game whatsoever. And so Maddie spends a lot of time trying to use her wiles to seduce Percy, and instead just comes across to him (and us) as the future subject of a sex crimes episode of Dateline. Much of Maddie’s physical hijinx is featured in the trailers, so that tempers some of the comedic surprises if you haven’t come into the movie pure. But that is actually more than made up for in the unexpected rapport and genuine chemistry between Lawrence and Feldman. 

While Lawrence’s dirty girl schtick and Feldman’s initially appalled reactions are very funny, No Hard Feelings really soars when writers Gene Stupnitsky (who also directs) and John Phillips get past the over-the-top set-up and let the pair confide in one another about their common brokenness. Maddie’s anger and the reason for her brittle nature is gently exposed by the kind and romantic Percy. They disarm one another, and challenge each other to see themselves in new ways. It’s a little clichéd, but how the script and the actors tackle it is fresh and genuine. In particular, a scene that involves the rearrangement of Hall & Oates’ “Maneater” is a bit of movie magic that is thrilling to watch unfold. 

While there are some funny supporting performances bolstering the main characters—especially Natalie Morales, as Maddie’s acerbic best friend, and the aforementioned Broderick and Benanti—No Hard Feelings rests on the shoulders of Lawrence and Feldman. When their characters are allowed to show their authentic selves to one another, you really fall in love with them as people, not as a romantic couple. And while “doing the deed” hovers around them throughout, it becomes apparent they’re meant to mean more to one another than the act, and that in itself is a fine subversion of the sex comedy genre. 

As the film barrels towards its climax, the charming and emotionally intimate scenes that fleshed out Maddie and Percy with such intention are unfortunately sacrificed to make way for a few more over-the-top comedic sequences that don’t land as well as the earlier setups. The whole last act feels overly tinkered with, almost as if Stupnitsky had a Percy-like crisis of confidence in the final edit (or just very strong studio notes), because he’s suddenly contorting the characters to get them to where he wants them, instead of allowing for the more organic pacing that came before. The most egregious example is a climactic beach scene that looks like it was shot over three distinctly different parts of a day, then ham-handedly edited together. Perhaps it’s just poor color grading, last minute reshoots or a Frankensteined edit, but when the emotions of a key moment are lost because you’re questioning why it looked like midday at the start of a car chase and then sunset moments later, that’s where a film can get away from you.

No Hard Feelings does mostly pull itself together in the very end because of Lawrence and Feldman, who do the work to make us believe in Maddie and Percy as they connect over the course of one meaningful summer. Is it an overly tidy ending? Sure. Plus, the script definitely cheats, accelerating character development while sacrificing clarity with regards to the passage of time. But when it counts, No Hard Feelings sheds the jokes and finds a meaningful journey for these two emotional misfits that change each other’s lives.

Director: Gene Stupnitsky
Writers: Gene Stupnitsky, John Phillips
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Matthew Broderick, Laura Benanti
Release Date: June 23, 2023

Tara Bennett is a Los Angeles-based writer covering film, television and pop culture for publications such as SFX Magazine, Total Film, SYFY Wire and more. She’s also written books on Sons of Anarchy, Outlander, Fringe, The Story of Marvel Studios and The Art of Avatar: The Way of Water. You can follow her on Twitter @TaraDBennett or Instagram @TaraDBen

 
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