No Hard Feelings is a 2023 rom-com about a 30-ish year old who is asked to give romantic experience to 19 year old getting ready for college in exchange for a desperately needed car.
Catch cars, not feelings. Thirty-something Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) is on a string of bad luck. She’s behind on taxes for her home in Montauk, and she is now out of an Uber job after her car gets towed by an ex of whom she broke a heart to. Bad timing for this to happen in the summer, when tourists infiltrate the island. She’s got no choice but to pick up some shifts at the bar, but it’s slow money.
When browsing ads in the newspaper, Maddie comes across something shocking, but seemingly simple. There’s an advertisement written by a married couple asking for a twenty-something woman to date their son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). Percy’s parents, Allison (Laura Benanti) and Laird (Matthew Broderick), have nothing but great things to say about their offspring, but acknowledge that he’s well behind socially and definitely romantically ahead of his freshman year at Princeton and needs some “seasoning.” In exchange for breaking their son in, they’ll give the participant a used, intact Buick. Maddie gets the job. Bizarre, yes, but there are multiple ways to experience love.
One cannot talk about any new mid-sized budget released comedy without talking about the viability of the genre today. It isn’t the 90’s or the 2000’s anymore, and it isn’t even the early 2010’s where routinely one or two comedies would always make their way into the domestic top 15. Through a combination of a changing world, viewing preferences, and the aging out of genre stalwarts among other reasons, theatrically released comedies simply don’t have the same buzz and ROI they used to. So when a new one comes out starring America’s sweetheart at one point in time, it’s a harkening to nostalgic feelings of yesteryear even if it’s just fine.
No Hard Feelings is director and co-writer Gene Stupnitsky’s sophomore effort following the surprise hit of 2019’s Good Boys. Some comedies surprise in their direction (see: Neighbors and 21/22 Jump Street), while most play it pretty straight in their presentation. Stupnitsky’s feature is the latter, with a few interesting moments in the middle using TikTok at a party to highlight the millennial/Gen Z divide along with a really surprising moment that will catch most viewers off guard in a good way.
The cringe and ick feeling was high when the premise of No Hard Feelings first came about some months ago. Gender-swapping aside, a rom-com about a 30 year-old finding love with a barely legal 19 year-old…in this climate? Hard sell, but Stupnitsky and co-writer John Phillips mostly land the plane by minimizing the actual romance and prioritizing the actual growth each person can stand to gain from one another. For Percy, that takes the form of a basic coming-of-age template and learning to be more assertive. For Maddie, it means asking why she pushes people away and why she’s so resolute to stay where she’s at at the cost of personal growth.
So, No Hard Feelings has some heart, yet it has a similar problem found in many comedies of losing its tone for a long stretch in the final act by amping up the melodrama (and music) and slowing down the pace. Very different movie in most of the last third than what preceded it. From the hilarity end, does it have those deep belly laughs? It’s objective, but not quite, though it’s consistently amusing.
This is Lawrence’s first foray into full-on comedy, and the A-lister is very game for the task displaying a knack for comedic delivery and a willingness to be physical. Above all, she is committed to the endeavor and isn’t afraid to make herself be vulnerable or look goofy. While she might not be a natural at this (think peak Will Ferrell, prime Eddie Murphy and Danny McBride who can create special scenes off of improvisation), she won’t be awkward in this genre as long as she has a decent script to work with. The chemistry is intentionally awkward with Feldman who fits the role in his first arrival into the mainstream. Zingers here and there come from supporting characters played by Natalie Morales, Scott MacArthur, Benanti, and Broderick, but this is JLaws movie with a healthy serving of Feldman.
If there’s one unequivocal thing No Hard Feelings feels like, it feels like the next phase of Lawrence’s career. Sandra Bullock comes to mind as someone who seemingly alternated comedic vehicles with dramatic fare as she got more and more established. No Hard Feelings isn’t destined to be a new classic, but it whets the appetite to see Lawrence find her footing more in the genre