Jennifer Lawrence is funny, but ‘No Hard Feelings’ loses its raunchy mojo when it tries to have a heart | Movie review
“No Hard Feelings” wants to have its cake and get sexy with it, too.
The rom-com has a fun if also tricky premise: A financially desperate woman in her 30s answers an ad posted by helicopter parents looking for an enticing female to “date” their shy 19-year-old son without his knowing it’s a setup. She gets a car out of the deal, while he is brought out of his shell before he goes off to college.
It also boasts a game star, Jennifer Lawrence, the “Hunger Games” alum giving her all to squeeze the most juice out of this rare (only?) straight comedy for her. As you know from her myriad late-night talk show appearances, she can be quite funny, and “No Hard Feelings” has its share of laughs.
Unfortunately, though, instead of leaning into the raunchy sex-comedy vibes the trailers for the movie so proudly tout, director and co-writer Gene Stupnitsky works overtime to establish an emotional, heartfelt center to the affair that it never really earns.
We meet Lawrence’s Maddie as her car is being repossessed — towed, no less, by an ex, Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach of “The Bear”), who misses her deeply despite their having dated for only three months.
“It was three months?!? It felt like more,” she says with disbelief, before insincerely adding, “in a good way!”
Losing the car is a huge blow, as Maddie supplements her bartending income by driving for Uber. And in recent years, her oceanside town has become a summer hotspot for the rich, inflating property taxes for locals such as her. She’s behind on her payments to the government and is in real danger of losing her childhood home, left to her by her late mother.
The aforementioned ad, promising a used Buick in exchange for time spent with the young man, seems like the answer to a prayer.
And while, at 32, Maddie is older than the ideal candidate, she convinces the parents (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) that what’s needed here is someone with more experience, who can bring tact and sincerity to the assignment. And it becomes clear that they really want a certain rite of passage to happen for their son.
Soon, she shows up, sexy dress and all, at the dog shelter where the inexperienced chap, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), volunteers. As he interviews her for possible dog ownership, she takes an unusual amount of interest in him, really laying the flirtation on thick.
He is mostly terrified.
After convincing him to accept a ride home from her — in a creepy van she’s borrowed from a friend — he nails her with pepper spray when they arrive at her house instead of his. Despite this rough start, she does get him to ask her out, which, like so much of what will follow, is wholly unbelievable.
At first, she tries to close the deal as quickly as possible, plying him with a Long Island iced tea at a bar and then coercing him into going skinny dipping. (He desperately tries to get out of the latter, citing the fact the beach is closed and that, as a result, there aren’t any lifeguards on duty.)
As “No Hard Feelings” progresses, though, the two begin to form a bond, each of them a damaged outcast in his or her own way.
We can buy that — and they’re both likable enough — but it’s tough to buy into Maddie becoming quite possessive of him, especially as she also correctly worries he’s becoming too attached to her. (Now, that he does, in fact, become smitten with this sexy older woman IS believable.)
As the fun silliness of the first half of “No Hard Feelings” gives way to predictable plot developments and a big ol’ pile of feelings, it loses much of its entertainment value. Scene after scene drags as we work toward the virtually inevitable conclusion to all of this.
Overall, like so many comedies, “No Hard Feelings” is neither written well enough, by Stupnitsky and John Phillips, nor edited as tightly as it should have been, by Brent White.
You’d expect at least a bit more from Stupnitsky, a former head writer on “The Office” and the director of 2019’s sophomoric-but-sweet “Good Boys,” a movie that balances tones better than this one.
Ultimately, you can’t bash “No Hard Feelings” too much. Those funny moments from the trailers are all here, of course, many of them at least partially attributable to the work of Lawrence (“Red Sparrow,” “Mother!”).
Feldman has less of a gift for comedy, but he brings other gifts to the table. He portrayed the lead role on the Broadway production of “Dear Evan Hansen,” so it’s no surprise the filmmakers put him behind a microphone and piano for one of the more effective endearing moments in the movie.
If only it hit more high notes.
Sorry, “No Hard Feelings” — you’re just not what we’re looking for right now.
No hard feelings.
‘No Hard Feelings’
Where: Theaters.
When: June 23.
Rated: R or sexual content, language, some graphic nudity and brief drug use.
Runtime: 1 hour, 43 minutes.
Stars (of four): 2.