No Hard Feelings (2023)
Jennifer Lawrence is the best thing about No Hard Feelings, an at times pretty funny comedy, about the relationship that slowly but surely develops between a 32-year old woman and a 19-year old boy.
In this day and age a relationship like that is already pushing the envelope.
Still, one of the reasons the movie mostly works is that, in the end, it’s not so much about sex as it is about the slowly blossoming friendship between two polar opposites.
Maddie is an Uber-driver who urgently needs a new car as she is about to lose her house because she can’t pay her property taxes. Percy is a very smart and very awkward introvert, who is accepted into Princeton but will have a hard time fitting in - at least that’s what his liberal parents think - without any significant sexual experience.
If Maddie can seduce their son, she will get a Buick for her trouble so she can continue to work and save her house.
But of course, life is not that simple. Even though Maddie comes on strong to Percy, and the young man is definitely attracted to her, he is also a romantic soul who wants to take it slow.
This leads to all sorts of comedic situations, that are pretty funny without being completely hilarious. The problem being that one the one hand the movie tries to be raunchy - there is even a scene in which a naked Maddie fights off some kids who stole her and Percy’s clothes while they were skinny dipping - but on the other it is constantly signaling that nothing really ‘bad’ is gonna happen to the boy, which robs the movie of all possible tension. It’s also a way of avoiding any real moral questions about the whole affair.
That No Hard Feelings does manage to hold our interest is has also to do with the casting. Lawrence is great in one of her first comedic roles, dominating every scene she’s in, while at the same time having real chemistry with the lesser known Andrew Barth Feldman, who nevertheless manages to hold his own, exuding true charm and sensitivity.
The best scene in the movie is when Maddie and Percy go to dinner in a fancy restaurant, where the musically gifted Percy sits behind the piano and plays a magnificent rendition of Maneater by Hall & Oates. It’s in instant classic in a movie that could have used a couple of more like that.
Director Gene Stupnitsky, who wrote the script with John Phillips, seems to have enrolled in the Judd Apatow-school of comedy. He does not add much in the way of visual style, instead focusing on his actors, who come off quite well. Including a rather large supporting cast, that includes Matthew Broderick as Percy’s father and Hasan Minhaj as a realtor who went to the same school as Maddie.
On the whole, No Hard Feelings is not as good as Joy Ride, which really pushed some boundaries, but still a lot better than other recent comedies like About My Father and The Out-Laws.
Note: No Hard Feelings is in cinemas now. It will then go to PVOD, before streaming first on Netflix (as part of its licensing deal with Sony) and then migrating to Hulu.