No Hard Feelings Synopsis
In No Hard Feelings, Jennifer Lawrence is Maddy Barker, a down on her luck 32 year old who struggles to pay the property tax on her house and relies on Uber and bartending as her streams of income. Maddy’s car is seized due to back taxes and she’s put into a desperate position as her income is depleted. She comes across an ad for a free car, the only catch is that the parents giving it away want a woman to “date” their son (Percy, played by Andrew Barth Feldman) to break him out of his shell as he prepares for college. Chaos ensues etc… etc…
No Hard Feelings Review
I’m gonna start out by telling you that No Hard Feelings has a scene that will go down in history as the most uncomfortable I’ve ever felt in a theater. I think it would be hard for any film to push uncomfortability levels much higher than that. That doesn’t necessarily make it a great scene, however. (There will be spoilers later on about this scene). I like that No Hard Feelings pushed the envelope in that particular instance, but the movie played it safe with every other scene. Gene Stupnitsky (Good Boys, Bad Teacher, The Office) who co-wrote and directed this film didn’t do a terrible job, but I feel like there was more to work with. Definitely a few funny jokes in there but too many fell flat. The writing was formulaic and didn’t deviate much from the tried and true. The age gap between the leads (32 and 19) also made the film a little hard to swallow.
Bright Spots?
An apology is owed to Jennifer Lawrence. She’s amazing throughout, her performance is one of the only things that keeps the movie afloat a majority of the time. The soundtrack of Bob Seger, Hall and Oates and Billy Squier also provided some much needed support.
(Small Spoiler!)
Percy and Maddy go on their second date in which she forces him to come skinny dipping at the beach. He’s very weary of the idea yet is convinced. A group of drunk friends come by and steal their clothes off the sand as a joke. Jennifer Lawrence emerges from the sea in a fit of rage completely nude. She begins to fight with these three teens who take the joke too far. It’s a visceral scene that is guaranteed to make you squirm for better or worse.
Is No Hard Feelings Worth the watch?
Yes, I’ll make it simple. This is by no means a great movie and if you have very discerning taste then you’re most likely not gonna find joy in this, but the average movie goer is gonna find that No Hard Feelings isn’t the worst way to spend an hour and a half.
There are better films that explore similar circumstances (Adventureland, The Way Way Back), but this is passable.
Grade: 6/10
Recommendation: Check it out if you have time to kill
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