NO HARD FEELINGS (2023) – Review

Cinema roll-call! Alright, it’s the Summer movie season, and what stalwarts have already taken over the multiplex? Big superhero epic? Check and double-check! Action blockbuster franchises? Check? Family-friendly animated features? Check! Raunchy slapstick comedy? Hello…Anyone there? Oh yes, finally it’s here just as Summer officially begins. And this is indeed rated “R” as in raunchy, ribald, and risque. much in the same vein as THE HANGOVER trilogy and the AMERICAN PIE dynasty of flicks (theatres and straight-to-video). Oh, for those of you that think these flicks are too “low brow” and “classless”, well the “above the title” star is an Oscar winner, so there! And if you think such a genre is “beneath her”, I’m sure she hopes you’ll laugh and that there will be NO HARD FEELINGS.

The star in question is Jennifer Lawrence, who plays the “barely making ends meet” Maddie Barker. She’s in the “gig economy” as an Uber driver and a bartender in order to hang on to her family home in the now pricey burg of Montauk in Long Island, NY. It seems that the houses there are desired by Big Apple dwellers wanting a getaway residence making the property taxes skyrocket. This story begins on an early morning when Maddie’s fiscal luck runs out and the “repo-man” (an ex-beau, naturally) hauls away her vehicle (thus ending her Uber “side hustle”). She’s gonna’ lose her place! What to do? Then, like an answer to her prayers, she spots an ad on “that online job mart”. A pair of those rich NYC parents are looking for a young woman to “date” their shy, introverted nineteen-year-old-son before he heads to Princeton in the Fall. And they’re offering the title to a nearly brand-new Buick-Regal! Maddie meets with the “helicopter parents” (Laura Benaanti and Matthew Broderick), who clumsily define the “date” agreement and set down some guidelines along with a way for her to “run into” him at the local animal shelter where he volunteers. Donning her tightest lil’ red dress Maddie approaches nervous, nerdy Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). Her botched seduction tactics somehow lead to a date, revealing that Percy is a lovely soul. Can Maddie go through with the “deal”? What if she begins to like him? And what if he somehow falls for her?

After several years of very amusing talk show interviews, the talented Ms. Lawrence finally gets the opportunity to flex those impressive ‘comedy chops”. Sure, she’s had funny moments in films like AMERICAN HUSTLE and DON’T LOOK UP, but she’s never been given a role that’s the comedy “full monty”. Lawrence gives us a terrific comic heroine in Maddie, a woman that’s often a bit dim-witted, yet is a plucky survivor of life, plunging ahead even if she ends up face down in the muck and mire (yes, she’s a slapstick athlete). Yet somehow she retains that star glamour and charisma making us root for Maddie even at her most devious. Plus Lawrence is a generous “team player’ giving ample support to relative screen newcomer Feldman, who makes Percy more than the typical virginal dweeb of some many movie sex farces. He’s too smart to be wowed by Maddie’s over-the-top vamping, yet he wants to make a personal connection with this “free spirit”. And he’s also a gifted comic (I’m still chuckling over his panic at the sound from a pool table). The story gets a great lift from two very different duos. Broadway royalty Benanti and Broderick are nearly pitch-perfect as the overbearing parents of Percy, who aren’t quite “in sync” with the scheme (she’s a tad mortified by his delight over their boy getting some “experience”). The other married couple is best buddies with Maddie cheering her on while still being stunned by the whole “deal”. Natalie Morales is the very pregnant Sara who shares Maddie’s ire at the rich “invaders’ while trying to keep her often clueless hubby, Jim (Scott MacArthur) focused . It’s a playful teasing rather than nasty bickering, as they’re “in it for the long haul”.Oh, and Ebon Moss-Bachras scores several laughs as the indecisive repo guy still pining for Maddie.

Right from the opening titles the movie has a “go for broke” comic mania, thanks to director Gene Stupnitsky, a TV vet who’s following up his modest coming-of-age comedy of 2019, GOOD BOYS. Maddie’s desperation coupled with the quiet awkward behavior of Percy makes for some amusing set pieces (ditto for the “interview” with the parents). Lawrence as Maddie is a great satiric riff on the sultry “maneaters” of late-night cable TV (y’know, “Skin-a-max”), while Feldman holds the screen with her. Unfortunately, this film succumbs to the dreaded midpoint “lull” in which the laughs are sparse and the pace begins to drag. Sadly it never really recovers despite a couple of ill-conceived roles for a vet of SNL and a Daily Show alum. Then the main characters behave in ways that don’t really make sense and the filmmakers begin to morph the racy giggle-fest into a more mature afterschool special in which everybody “learns something” and “grows emotionally” by escaping past traumas. Yeesh, that’s a big detour from the notion of Lawrence doing a female spin on the familiar “man-child” vehicles in the “wheelhouse” of Sandler and Ferrell. It all builds to a “feel good” upbeat finale that seems too convoluted and more than a touch “pat”. Putting the talented Ms. Lawrence in a zany comedy was an inspired idea, but this script needed at least a couple more “passes”. Hey, at least all the gags aren’t in the trailers, so …um… NO HARD FEELINGS, right?

2 Out of 4

NO HARD FEELINGS is now playing in theaters everywhere.