No Hard Feelings review: vacuous romp is a waste of Jennifer Lawrence’s talent
There have been so many good films recently that one ran the risk of sounding too positive. The epically superb Sisu, the beautifully dark (if overly long) Beau Is Afraid, the nostalgia-infused fun (if morally problematic) The Flash, the tongue-in-cheek gorefest of Evil Dead Rise, to the graphically intense Spider-verse movie… So many great movies. Then came Chevalier (which I write about at length elsewhere) and now No Hard Feelings. One suddenly runs the risk of sounding too negative.
The trailers for the supposedly romantic and supposedly comedic No Hard Feelings were, let’s say, a little in your face. Sony Pictures clearly wanted to market this as the edgy, bawdy, bad taste, sex comedy that would give audiences a chance to see Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence being obscene and depraved. It seemed to scream: “get ready for some saucy fun as Lawrence hilariously forces herself sexually on a 19-year-old virgin (lucky guy, ha ha!) in order to land herself a free car!”
One came away from the trailers thinking: surely Jennifer Lawrence is better than that!
The good news is that after 103 minutes, one realises that the film was badly marketed. The bad news is that Jennifer Lawrence is still better than this.
This is not an edgy, bawdy, bad taste, sex comedy. This is a sometimes-interesting take on the roles that people are often forced to adopt by a culture that abhors individuality (and, in that, the film seems to be a comment on its own existence, as in: the roles that a gifted actress has to take in order to get a film made). As far as sex is concerned, this film loathes it. This is one of the least sexually fun films you’re likely to see. Sex is synonymous with self-annihilation and, indeed, violation because this film is, if anything, extremely crass (other reviewers are more generous and call it “bittersweet”). If framed differently, it would be considered a film trying to justify sexual abuse. This is a film about a 19-year-old, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) who is, in the current parlance, neurodiverse. He enjoys his own company, playing video games, studying music, and working in an animal rescue centre. His rich parents (Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick) aren’t happy with any of this and advertise for a young woman to date the young boy (without his knowledge) and, euphemistically, “date his brains out”.
This is where Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) enters the picture. Her life is a mess. Her relationships are shallow, rooted in sex and a lack of emotional connection. In a way, sex is her problem. It’s presented as an empty experience, meaning nothing.
No problem, then, for Maddie to sleep with Percy and earn a car so she can continue working as an Uber driver (her former car has been repossessed). This isn’t sex work, though. The film makes that point very clear and in a very loud voice says “and there’s nothing wrong with that if it was”. No, this is just her chance to save the family home. She then proceeds to spend a lot of time in the film all but molesting poor Percy. But it’s fine, of course, because in the higher logic of all this, any guy would be happy to be mauled and sexually solicited by Jennifer Lawrence.
Such a laugh! Unless you agree and think it’s just mean spirited. Had it been Percy being paid to take Maddie’s virginity, there’d be more moral outrage. Either way, the mean spiritedness extends to the way the film mocks a perfectly reasonable young man for being less than the alpha male. It’s all calculated, shallow, and shockingly dumb. And it’s also a rather sad spectacle given – as we soon see – the couple could have just dated quite normally. This is the sweet part of the “bittersweet” logic. They have a lot in common. They complement each other – her confidence gives him a boldness he formerly lacked, and his sensitivity teaches her a little about emotional connections. There would be a pretty decent romance here if Jennifer Lawrence wasn’t contractually committed to swearing a lot and then running around completely naked as she beats up a gang of youths that have stolen her clothes. (Lawrence had been one of the stars whose nude private photos had been hacked a few years ago and this film, apparently, was her chance to reclaim her power by appearing nude by her own volition.)
The best part of the film is when we see the deepening of relationships, Lawrence growing a conscience, and the young man falling in love with her. Ah, but just when it starts to get interesting and have a little emotional depth, here comes the fourth act complication: Percy discovers his parent’s plot, and it happens just as Maddie is coming to terms with her conscience and feelings for Percy. We have a brief reversal, Percy shuns Maddie, and then… well, you can imagine the rest.
Oh, how we laughed! Once.
And that’s the other disappointing thing to report. It really doesn’t have that many laughs. The script is shockingly flat, especially in terms of witty one-liners. There are very few. Overall, it’s a lot more bitter than sweet. It has a few (but too many) interesting things to say about social media influences, the TikTok generation, and about the nuances of age differences around the twenties but it’s hard to take much more from it. The best thing we can say is that one scene at a Princeton student party plays out to ‘Anemone’ by the Brian Jonestown Massacre, so we at least know that the younger generation aren’t that lacking in taste.
Once Lawrence stops flaunting herself, appears with less make-up, and acting more human, the film becomes grounded in her character and is better for it. But again, that’s the ultimate conclusion: Jennifer Lawrence is so much better than this.
No hard feelings, No Hard Feelings, but you were a waste of my time.
@DavidWaywell
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