What starts out looking like it wants to be a gross-out comedy in the Porky’s vein eventually, and more gratifyingly, heads closer to The Graduate territory in No Hard Feelings.
It seems like quite a while since we’ve seen an apparent sex-on-the-brain romp that actually has a bit more on its mind than just pushing the boundaries of vulgarity and gross-out comedy. But while director and co-writer Gene Stupnitsky, who worked on 66 episodes of The Office and numerous other shows, is only sporadically successful at having things both ways, the film nonetheless shows talent both in generating some good laughs and in addressing serious aspects of life that eventually must be faced. Jennifer Lawrence, who is also a producer here, hits the mark as a thirty-ish woman whose great looks and popularity have seemingly delayed her full transition from hot young thing into responsible adulthood.
Set in seaside Montauk, New York, all seems rather contrived at the start, as Allison and Laird Becker (Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick) are terribly concerned about their son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), who is staggeringly withdrawn and uncommunicative. If there’s anyone who might be able to pull the kid out of his self-made ditch it might well be Maddie Barker (Lawrence), who answers a Craig’s List ad and enters the fray.
The director, whose second feature this is, after Good Boys in 2019, pushes too hard at the outset, almost as if he were afraid that people might leave or switch the channel if he didn’t hook them in immediately. To this end, he seemingly uses the ‘f’ word in the dialogue more than 20 times within a couple of minutes; who does he think he is, Richard Pryor? It gets tiresome very quickly.
Fortunately, there is considerable energy coming from every direction here and, increasingly, the focus keeps turning back to Maddie. This isn’t a film notably devoted to psychological assessments of its characters—the pitch and tone are hardly consistent, nor is there a clue about their real interests or desires, not that these things necessarily matter at all in comedies. From scene to scene, one’s attention is dragged from this to that in ways that seem sloppy or at least inscrutable, which might suggest either uncertainty or a simple inability to summon up all the creative necessities.
All the same, No Hard Feelings often comes out of nowhere with fanciful ideas, startling moments that genuinely surprise, bizarre interludes that more often than not emanate from Lawrence, in part from her own imagination but also from spur of the moment inspiration. The film is funny, gross, ballsy, lame, daring and uncertain, more or less in equal measure. The leading lady is all of the above, definitely all in and yet always ingratiating; everyone involved was no doubt game for the wild stuff the filmmakers were attempting, but Lawrence, more than anyone else either in front of or behind the camera, knew how to measure and apportion the ingredients in a funny way. She’s the real pro here, while the others still have something more to learn.
Title: No Hard FeelingsDistributor: Columbia PicturesRelease date: June 23, 2023Director: Gene StupinskyScreenwriters: Gene Stupinsky, John PhillipsCast: Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Laura Benanti, Matthew Broderick, Natalie MoralesRunning time: 103 minRating: R
