No Hard Feelings

2023 Sony Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 47min

Comedy ~ Romance

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Natalie Morales, Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick.

“We are looking for an attractive, kind and intelligent woman, in her early to mid 20s, to “date” our son and bring him out of his shell before he leaves for college in the fall. In exchange, we’ll give you a clean, rust free, 40k mile Buick Regal, serious inquiries only.”

Jennifer Lawrence stars as 32 year old Maddie Barker. The Movie opens with her car being towed out of her driveway by an ex-boyfriend, who has a contract with the county to tow their seized property. She now has no way to continue her Uber job, which is how she makes her money for the year over the summer, driving the rich people around town that come to vacation at the beach town of Montauk, New York. She is behind on paying her property taxes and in danger of losing her Mother’s house she inherited and lives in.

Sara(Natalie Morales), Maddie’s best friend, sees an ad on Craigslist. The only true part of the movie(there was a real Craigslist ad that inspired the movie), the rest is fiction: “Need a car for college? “Date” our 19 year old son this summer. He is a wonderful young man, extremely smart, but socially very shy. He’s never had a girlfriend and we have tried everything. We are looking for an attractive, kind and intelligent woman, in her early to mid 20s, to “date” him and bring him out of his shell before he leaves for college in the fall. In exchange, we’ll give you a clean, rust free, 40k mile Buick Regal, serious inquiries only.”

Maddie decides to take the offer seeing it as a solution to her financial crisis. She agrees to meet with the parents Laird and Allison Becker(Matthew Broderick and Natalie Morales) and they hire her for the job of bringing their son out of his shell in exchange for the car. The next day she puts on a short dress and heels and goes down to the animal shelter where Laird and Allison’s son Percy(Andrew Barth Feldman) is working as a volunteer.

Maddie pretends to want to adopt a dog, completely hitting on a very nervous Percy throughout the process. She convinces Percy to let her give him a ride home. When they get to Maddie’s house Percy, being completely terrified that he has been kidnapped by a psycho woman and taken to her house instead of his, sprays Maddie with Mace. After Maddie screams at him that she was just trying to be a friend, he sprays her down with a garden hose to wash out the mace. Feeling really bad at spraying her with mace, Percy agrees to go on a date with Maddie the next day to get better acquainted.

I had my doubts in the very beginning of the movie when Jennifer Lawrence is on a comedic tirade about the reasons her ex shouldn’t tow her car away. It was a little cheesy right off the bat but it quickly grew on me, very quickly. I found myself laughing out loud shortly thereafter. And as hard as Maddie tries to seduce Percy, he tries even harder to resist. Which is one hilarious journey to watch as the two of them eventually start to have feelings for each other.

During their date, Percy sits down at a piano in the restaurant and plays Maneater(a song by Hall and Oates) at Maddie’s insistence. I was completely impressed by that. Awesome cover solo on a piano. Jennifer Lawrence is completely nude in a scene after the restaurant at the beach, where she convinces Percy to go skinny dipping. Amazingly enough she performs a scene completely nude kicking the crap out of three kids who try to steal their clothes off of the beach. I love this movie, thought it was great, especially after having my doubts in the beginning. The chemistry between Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman is contagious.