Though she may have had her big break with a movie franchise, The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence was never constrained by it the way several of her blockbuster star contemporaries were in terms of both critical recognition and commercial appeal. For a period there she was one of the last real movie stars who could headline adult dramas like Silver Linings Playbook and Red Sparrow to box office success in addition to more conventional big-budget movies. But a weird backlash emerged around her, her movies of both varieties got significantly less good, and she’s been mostly quiet since the pandemic, appearing only as part of the ensemble of Don’t Look Up and in last year’s forgettable Oscar-bait Causeway.
No Hard Feelings doesn’t just reintroduce Lawrence in a mainstream theatrical context, it taps into one of her talents that hasn’t often been utilized well by the David O. Russells and Darren Aronofskys she’s worked with previously: her comedy instincts. It was her grounded charisma and sense of humour that played a big part in her early stardom, and it was about time a studio capitalized on it. If anyone could bring back the Hollywood comedy as a lucrative prospect, Lawrence would be on the shortlist.
Of course original concepts for comedies are hard to come by, and while No Hard Feelings isn’t a particularly derivative premise, it isn’t much of an imaginative plot. Certainly for anyone whose seen their share of rom-coms or sex comedies, there’s few beats here that would catch you off guard. Lawrence stars as Maddie, a financially unstable permanent resident of the resort town of Montauk, New York, living in a house she inherited from her mother but is about to lose to bankruptcy. In her desperation for a car she needs to run an Uber service and save the house, she accepts a bizarre offer by a pair of wealthy helicopter parents to date and have sex with their introverted nineteen-year-old son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) before he goes off to college -in exchange for their pristine Buick.
It’s a strange set-up from director Gene Stupnitsky and his co-writer John Philips that borders on the politically incorrect -which it works to evade by frequently emphasizing the age difference between Maddie and Percy and its awkward, uncomfortable undertones. Certainly the first sequence, where Maddie’s upfront, pornographic flirtations and subsequent coercion of a lift home in a windowless van result in being maced in the face at an apparent abduction attempt shows just how conscious the movie is of how this looks. Likewise, the movie makes sure to establish early the kid’s heterosexuality and timid attraction towards Maddie to circumvent notions of non-consent. Crucially of course, Maddie is never excused or validated in her machinations –in fact the film expresses directly the toxic emotional manipulation she undertakes in this endeavor and the power she wields over Percy due to her age –a subject of fairly consistent ridicule by Percy’s peers.
It’s a stale joke, but Lawrence sells it well enough. Indeed, the effect of much of the film’s humour and pacing is down to her performance, her commitment and energy. Outrageous situations are the driving force of most comedies, and several that we see here aren’t particularly original (guaranteed a teen house party was first on the list of potential comic scenarios), but Lawrence in getting a handle on Maddie’s obstinate personality and desperate impulsiveness, plays to their rhythm very well without overdoing it –except for a couple moments of sheer mugging. In lesser hands I can imagine sequences like the attempted seduction at the animal shelter or the chaotic subversion of a classic skinny-dipping trope going awry and being embarrassing to watch. Lawrence though, embraces the film’s absurdities and marries them to her approach.
But as good as Lawrence is it wouldn’t mean anything if her co-star wasn’t up to the challenge, yet thankfully Feldman -a Broadway singer on just his second film- takes to the character and comedy with stupendous ease. He manages to transcend the awkward teen stereotype Percy is written as through confident performance choices that strike a balance of exuberance and sincerity. This is epitomized perhaps most starkly in his simultaneously soulful yet hilarious piano rendition of “Maneater” -a song that recurs with various significance through the movie. As this scene demonstrates, he’s a more than capable singer, which goes in hand with his sharp comedic instincts as something the industry would do well to take advantage of.
While Lawrence and Feldman may distract from the dull plotting and tedious conventions though, they don’t delineate them, and the last act especially is rather trying in how it sticks to the romantic-comedy rulebook without much in the way of engaging artistry or subversion. It’s downright trite the way the character arcs unfold, as though the writers knowing the story couldn’t resolve romantically, picked the only other courses of action they’d seen a dozen times before –conveyed with a complete lack of authenticity. What ingenuity the movie does demonstrate is largely evaporated by late-stage attempts to take itself seriously. On top of it all, the film is rather chaste for a sex comedy, which does partly come with the territory of its premise hinging on a single sexual experience; nonetheless it’s ambitions are low and it’s ‘adult’ circumstances are extremely limited -another R-rated comedy made principally for teenagers.
There’s the trickle of a relevant social commentary on the relationship between the locals of vacation towns like Montauk or Martha’s Vineyard and the wealthy vacationers who take it over in the summer, buying up all properties for mere summer homes while residents struggle to get by. The impetus of the plot is Maddie’s need to save her mother’s home which she was lucky enough to inherit when it was left to her mother by a dirtbag rich father who she’s never met. But nothing in this is discussed much beyond the way it personally effects Maddie, and the ending allows for the issue to be sidelined with a consolatory resolution that leaves its roots unaddressed. It’s merely illustrated as a fact of life for this kind of community that sucks unless you have the resources to escape it.
No Hard Feelings was perhaps overhyped in some areas of the online film community, under-hyped in others. On the one hand the mainstream movie space has been seriously deprived of R-rated comedies and star-focused vehicles alike, making No Hard Feelings –a movie that perhaps no one would have considered much even a decade ago- a rare thing now. But while it may be refreshing in a relative sense it is not more generally –and isn’t likely to revamp the studio comedy much after all. However, it is still a strong showcase for its stars, Jennifer Lawrence aptly displaying her striking comedy acumen and Andrew Barth Feldman making a splash as a noteworthy new talent. Whatever else, there’s substance in that.
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