No Hard Feelings Review

Jennifer Lawrence has been known for many things during her acting career. She has won an Oscar for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook and led two major franchises: The Hunger Games and X-Men. She takes on outlandish comedy with No Hard Feelings which she stars in and has produced.

Maddie Barker (Lawrence) is a 32-year-old trainwreck. She works as a bartender and an Uber driver and when she’s given a big property tax bill her car gets repossessed. Out of desperation, Maddie answers an unusual Craiglist ad where she would get a car if she dates an awkward 19-year-old before he goes to college.

No Hard Feelings was directed and co-written by Gene Stupnitsky. His previous film was Good Boys which had bad trailers where it seemed its humour was simply going to be based on kids swearing and doing rude things. Yet it turned out to be a sweet film that had risqué comedy. There was a sense of deja vu with No Hard Feelings since the trailers were unimpressive, yet it turned out to be a delightfully funny film.

The core of the film was the relationship between Maddie and Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). Maddie was trying to seduce someone who she described as ‘unfuckable.’ Percy made it difficult because he wasn’t a typical lad. He was a shy, sensitive, and naïve kid who liked video games and animals. I related a bit too much with Percy. Percy was looking for a friend, not someone to have sex with and as the film progressed, Maddie grew to like Percy. They had fun together with each other, Percy slowly took more risks and Maddie developed a sense of empathy and came to a self-realisation. These are standard character arcs that were done well enough.

Whilst the point of No Hard Feelings had an extraordinary setup, it had a typical issue for a comedy: the ticking timebomb. Maddie was willing to pimp herself for a car, leading to the friendship being built on a lie. At some point Percy was going to find out and feel betrayed. At least in No Hard Feelings it led to a funny and awkward scene.

No Hard Feelings also attempted to have a wider theme about economic inequality. Maddie and her friends grew up in Montauk, a wealthy tourist town on Long Island. Yet they weren’t wealthy. Maddie was doing service jobs and struggling to keep the house she inherited from her mother. Maddie’s friends, Jeff (Scott MacArthur) and Sarah (Natalie Morales) were married and expecting a baby, but they were also struggling. They were still renting and Sarah was a teacher yet had to work a second job as a bartender so they could afford their rent. Montauk was a popular place for rich New Yorkers to have a second home and these actions pushed up prices for everyone. Another one of Maddie’s friends advised her to take Percy’s family for a ride since the rich exploited them. No Hard Feelings ended up being another addition to the ‘screw the rich’ cinematic trend.

Jennifer Lawrence is known for being a serious actress, so it’s unexpected for her to do this type of time. I have found Lawrence overrated at times. It was obvious when she doesn’t care for a role, like in her final two X-Men movies. Yet she did impress me with No Hard Feelings. Lawrence showed she had metaphorical balls for the ‘beach scene.’ It produced the biggest laugh during my screening.  Some jokes didn’t land, like when Maddie was trying to walk up some stairs on rollerblades: I was thinking just take them off. But there were more hits than misses in the joke department.

Lawrence was supported well.  MacArthur and Morales were the best supporting performances because of their marriage dynamic, particularly due to Jeff being the less responsible one, and Sarah reacting to it. They did provide some laughs. A sequence where Maddie goes to a high school party felt like a combination of 21 Jump Street and Bodies Bodies Bodies. This was due to Maddie experiencing a generational gap with the teenagers seeing her as old and uncool, and the younger people being obsessed with social media and proving how ‘enlightened’ they were.

On a final note, the filmmakers clearly wanted to get the most out of the song ‘Maneater.’ It was a part of the film’s funniest moments and it was turned into a more emotional song.

No Hard Feelings was a broad, raunchy done well. Lawrence was clearly game for her role and No Hard Feelings provided plenty of laughs.