‘No Hard Feelings’ Review: Jennifer Lawrence Shines in Sweet and Saucy Summer Comedy
No Hard Feelings, Gene Stupnitsky’s satisfyingly funny summer comedy, opens with a tow truck and a desperate woman.
The morning after a one-night stand with an Italian stranger, Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) wakes to find her car being impounded by the county. Hard times have fallen on the Montauk local, who supplements her bartending income by driving for Uber. She owes thousands in property taxes, and it doesn’t help that her ex, Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), whom she ghosted after three months of dating, is the one seizing her vehicle. His bitterness about their lack of closure means he definitely won’t do her a solid.
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It’s under these terrible circumstances that Maddie finds a peculiar Craigslist advertisement. A rich couple (played by Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick), desperate for their son (Andrew Barth Feldman) to gain confidence before college, is looking for someone to casually date him. Love, lust and sexual experimentation will loosen up their anxious teen and catapult him into adulthood, they hope. Oh, and they will give the family’s old Buick to whoever gets the job done.
This premise instigates the action in No Hard Feelings. The film, directed and co-written by Stupnitsky (Good Boys), is modeled after the raunchy comedies of the early aughts — the kind of mid-budget studio flicks that end up buried in the algorithmic madness of a streaming service these days. This airy and refreshingly low-stakes comedy will have you steadily chuckling, if not necessarily rolling on the floor laughing. But it also has a surprising amount of heart.
Lawrence is a big part of the reason No Hard Feelings works. She’s sharp and sassy as the hyper-independent, emotionally avoidant lover with a short fuse. It’s fun to watch the actress embrace her sillier register, but her dramatic skills are a boon, too, lending depth to a character that could be one-note and making it easier to believe the more emotional turns the film takes later.
After responding to the Craigslist ad, Maddie (still without a car) rollerblades to the home of the Beckers. That whole sequence, from Maddie struggling to skate up their hill to her interview with the parents, bursts with a wry, awkward humor that may remind viewers that Stupnitsky sharpened his skills as a writer on The Office.
Maddie manages to convince Allison (Benanti) and Laird (Broderick) that, although she’s older than the requested age (early-to-mid 20s), she’s the right person to help their son Percy (Feldman) out of his shell. As these things go, Maddie must keep the exchange with the parents a secret and stage a meet-cute with Percy. Their first encounter is, conveniently, at the animal shelter where Percy works during the summer. He’s not a local like Maddie; he’s a “summer person,” a phrase Maddie scornfully uses to refer to the vacationers driving up the cost of living.
Maddie comes on strong and Percy, who prefers to be alone, rejects her initial advances. Feldman’s chronically uncomfortable teen plays well against Lawrence’s energizer bunny-esque adult. The two represent a generational divide between Gen Z and elder millennials, a contrast that provides the substance for many of the film’s jokes. Maddie doesn’t understand why Percy doesn’t drink or know how to drive, or why he isn’t constantly horny. “What’s wrong with your generation?” reactions become something of a refrain, which starts to feel tired by the end of the film. Percy, on the other hand, finds himself simultaneously attracted to and afraid of Maddie, who he, on more than one occasion, suggests embodies the Hall & Oates song “Maneater.”
There’s more to each of these characters than meets the eye. Stupnitsky dials down the intensity of the first act — with its sharp comedic timing and energetic slapstick — to make way for sweeter moments with Maddie and Percy. On a series of dates, the two realize that they have more in common than they initially thought. Maddie shares the reasons she never left Montauk with Percy, while Percy grows more confident, finding small moments to act on his bolder impulses.
In its commitment to a particular kind of sentimentalism, No Hard Feelings doesn’t fully lean into the raunchiness some might expect from its trailer or early buzz. It also doesn’t become a Licorice Pizza kind of story — Maddie is clear on her end goal and Percy’s awkwardness can’t be overcome so easily. From its early moments, the film suggests that the bond between these two lonely souls is based on the strength of their friendship. The film’s shift into a more emotional gear isn’t seamless — the narrative takes some clunky turns in order to keep itself moving — but it is ultimately endearing.
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