No Hard Feelings Review: Jennifer Lawrence Shines In A Shaggy Raunch-Com
Of the many inexplicable details regarding how Hollywood operates in the 21st century, it's particularly surprising that Jennifer Lawrence has never starred in a true romantic comedy. Though she won an Academy Award for her excellent turn in "Silver Linings Playbook," the raucous and rambunctious comedy-drama from 2012, that Oscar led to more "Hunger Games" films and to dramas like "Passengers" and "Red Sparrow" as well as contractually obligated appearances in "X-Men" movies. All the while, any time Lawrence appeared on a talk show in the last few years, it was immediately evident that she was brimming with vivacity, a quick wit, and charm that would all naturally translate into a winning role in a lighthearted comedy. Finally, that lighthearted comedy is here, in the form of the shaggy and raunchy "No Hard Feelings," which winds up being generally entertaining less because of its outrageous premise and more because Lawrence and her male counterpart are so well cast and so full of innate chemistry that they become an irresistible pair.
Lawrence plays Maddie Barker, a Montauk native who has grown resentful over time of the higher-class folks who spend the summers in her hometown and then leave for New York when the temperatures drop. She makes her living as an Uber driver and a waitress; when she loses her car due to delays in paying her taxes, Maddie is driven to the point of desperation. She's so desperate that she can't resist a baffling Craiglist ad, in which two well-off parents (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) want to give a barely used car to a woman in her twenties to "date" their shy teenage son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), ensuring that he'll be more worldly when he goes off to college in the fall. Maddie takes them up on the offer, even though she quickly lets her guard down around the sensitive yet awkward Percy.
The general layout of "No Hard Feelings" and how it resolves itself is fairly easy to clock a mile away. Co-writer and director Gene Stupnitsky doesn't quite find strength in the twists and turns of the plot, which lumbers from the initially uncomfortable faux-meet-cute between Maddie and Percy to their growing connection to the truth eventually coming out. It's more a case of casting winning the day. That Lawrence is a striking screen presence should come as no shock, considering her lengthy filmography and all the proof she's accrued of her immense talent. As deliberately unbalanced as her pairing with the gawky Feldman is, his performance is just as strong as hers; Percy's geekiness is largely not played for lazy or easy laughs, especially as we gradually understand why he's unwilling to get out of his shell. The script's strengths are in the quieter moments between Maddie and Percy (even if the trailers lean heavily on gags like Percy macing Maddie).
A pair of winning performances
The presence of Broderick as Percy's father also raises the potential specter of films like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" serving as a warped kind of inspiration for "No Hard Feelings". (Percy and his parents have a mild falling-out in the middle of their very fancy abode, recalling some of the darker sequences in "Bueller" with Ferris' friend Cameron.) Here, as in some of the late John Hughes' films, the story works better when it's not trying quite so hard to be so raunchy. It's not that "No Hard Feelings" isn't funny, but that it's at its funniest when it's working overtime to milk laughs. One of the funnier moments Lawrence has is when Maddie stalks through a college party looking for Percy, antagonizing the teenagers who treat her like someone's mother — it's a case of a movie star gleefully embracing a lack of vanity. The same is true of the one R-rated moment that works in the film's favor, when a naked Maddie takes on a trio of pranksters after they try to steal her clothes while she skinny-dips with Percy.
As is often the case with modern comedies, the wheels come close to falling off in the third act once the inevitable moments of realization hit and before the potential of a happy ending hits the horizon. Throughout "No Hard Feelings," the direction feels standard issue but becomes notably shakier in the climax — to the point of feeling cobbled together in the editing room late in the game. For all of the moments when Stupnitsky lets the character interactions fill up the space of a scene, as when Maddie gets to witness Percy playing piano live at a restaurant (and Feldman gets to show off his singing chops, honed from time on Broadway), the climax seems as desperate as Maddie does in the opening act.
Whatever else is true, "No Hard Feelings" is enjoyable because Jennifer Lawrence is still one of the most delightful actresses of her generation. (At one point, another character dryly dubs her "America's sweetheart," but the moniker does kind of fit in a sincere way.) She's well matched by Andrew Barth Feldman here; their performances are what make this film work at all. If there was any cinematic justice in the world, Lawrence would have proven her romantic comedy bona fides long before now. "No Hard Feelings" is a step in the right direction, and hopefully not the last one. Here is a movie star working her magic; let Jennifer Lawrence revive the romantic comedy. She deserves it.
/Film Rating: 7 out of 10