The trailer for No Hard Feelings (in theaters June 23) promised something rare in today’s cinematic landscape: a hard-R, raunchy comedy with a genuine movie star, Jennifer Lawrence, in the lead. The film’s intriguingly risqué premise—a 30-something woman is hired by a nerdy teen’s rich parents to deflower their awkward son before he heads off to college—seemed like a welcome return to the transgressions of the Farrelly or Apatow eras. The trailer was buzzy and immediately controversial; when is the last time that could be said about a theatrically released studio comedy?
In actuality, No Hard Feelings is lighter than advertised. Lawrence does indeed play a 32-year-old, Maddie, who agrees to seduce 19-year-old Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) in exchange for a desperately needed car. But Gene Stupnitsky’s film has a kinder, gentler tone and intent than its logline suggests. No Hard Feelings is a nice comedy, courting taboo here and there but largely rounded out with sweetness. It’s an amiable time at the movies—but I was hoping for more of a shock.
The film’s greatest assets are its two central performances. Fans of Lawrence—who has been easing her way back into film stardom after slowing down the rocket ship of her career at the end of the last decade—have long wanted her to do an outright comedy. She’s charming and funny in public appearances and her acting has always been animated by a spiky intelligence that seems primed for the genre.
That theory bears out in No Hard Feelings, in which Lawrence handles outsized physical bits as dexterously as she does the more language-heavy scenes. Her character is a ne’er-do-well slacker, working odd jobs as she tries to save the Montauk cottage she grew up in. She’s crass and erratic, but not inhumanly boorish. It would be fun to see Lawrence pushed to that extreme, tasked with playing an awful person with little redeeming qualities. But that is not the mission of this movie, which ultimately favors decency over subversion. Lawrence’s tartness at least cuts through the film’s mushier tendencies where it counts; she keeps things away from the realm of treacle.
So does Feldman, a rising theater star making only his second film appearance. Percy would be easy to overplay as some jumble of tics and sniveling worry, a parody of nerdishness that makes all the expected jokes. Feldman instead finds interesting nuance, giving Percy a little mettle here, a jag of darkness there. He rises to the no doubt intimidating challenge of acting directly opposite Lawrence and the two build a dynamic rapport, tender and friendly but, yes, complicated by sex.
No Hard Feelings has been decried by some online as a groomer movie, or whatever the preferred age-gap terminology is at the moment. The film, based somewhat on a real Craigslist ad, is certainly conscious of that ethical third-rail, but only pursues its moral hazard so far. No Hard Feelings is careful to delineate specifically what does and does not happen between Maddie and Percy, and to frame the strange request made by Percy’s parents (played gamely by Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick) as coming from a place of genuine, un-creepy love.
Of course, creepiness is in the eye of the beholder; some viewers will likely be entirely put off by the film. To me, No Hard Feelings is a surprisingly tame movie, prizing themes of growth and maturity over the messy mechanics of seduction and sexual negotiation.
It’s a mellow hang movie, really, more in line with Big Time Adolescence than with, say, the gunk of There’s Something About Mary or the profane chatter of Superbad. The summertime, greens-and-blues, coastal Long Island setting is used to effectively lulling, poignant effect, making the film’s comic interruptions of physical distress—a nude brawl on a beach, a throat punch gone horribly wrong, a blast of mace right to the eyes—that much more jolting. Despite those occasional bursts of raucous energy, though, the film’s presiding vibes are laidback. Which is a slight disappointment, demanding a sudden realignment of expectations to get on the movie’s wavelength. On its own terms, though, No Hard Feelings is an agreeable, if fleeting, pleasure.
Should Lawrence want to further pursue the comedy vein and really get down in the muck next time, that would certainly be welcome. And perhaps Feldman could continue to explore the slight glint of edginess unearthed in this film. Or not. Maybe both actors will just want to have some simple fun again, in other settings, in an effort to re-create this film’s seemingly sunny experience—soft feelings only.
Richard Lawson
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