You may have already seen the headlines for Jennifer Lawrence’s new film, NO HARD FEELINGS. They all scream about how raunchy it is and, certainly, if you watch the trailer and see Lawrence’s character dressed in a skin-tight raspberry pink dress ask a dorky teenager if she can touch his weiner (he’s holding a dachshund), you’d think you’re in for a 2023 version of PORKY’S or any other young man/older woman sex comedy you can think of. NO HARD FEELINGS isn’t that kind of movie though. Well, it tries to be at the start but then it veers off to become something very different.

Maddie Barker (Lawrence, RED SPARROW; MOTHER!) is an Uber driver and bartender in Montauk, Long Island, the summer playground town for New York City’s rich and famous. After her car gets impounded because she’s late in paying her property taxes, she hears about an ad on Craigslist posted by Laird (Matthew Broderick, FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF) and Allison Becker (Laura Benanti, TICK, TICK… BOOM!), who are looking to hire a woman in her mid-20s to “date” their painfully shy, 19-year-old son, Percy (Broadway actor Andrew Barth Feldman), before he goes off to Princeton in the fall. In exchange for “dating him hard”, as the conversation goes, the Beckers will give Maddie a new car. Maddie starts to pursue Percy but then soon discovers that the young man would rather make a personal connection with her than just have a quick romp in the sack. For Maddie, however, making personal connections is something that she is really bad at.

NO HARD FEELINGS is nowhere near as raunchy as the click-baity reports are making it out to be, nor is it as raunchy as it needed to be. Sure, there are some laugh-out-loud moments but it’s mostly just chuckles every now and then. As much as Lawrence is being praised for her comedy chops playing a “maneater”, or perhaps a “boyeater” in this case, it’s Feldman, in his first notable on-screen performance, who is the film’s big revelation. Fifteen years ago, Michael Cera (SUPERBAD; JUNO) would have been a shoo-in to play Percy. Feldman not only out-dweebs Cera, he can sing and play the piano too. Those are probably his fingers audiences are seeing hitting the keys in Percy’s big moment that turns the tide with Maddie. The young actor also shows great chemistry with the mega-star, which goes a long way to making this film more enjoyable than it deserves to be. NO HARD FEELINGS, rather than being risqué, is fairly risk-free. Perhaps the most “out there” moment in the film comes when Lawrence bares it all for the cameras, although it’s questionable as to whether this is her body or someone else’s. The film’s credits say a body double was used at some point in the production. In any case, that scene where audiences get to see both her and Feldman is their birthday suits comes across as slightly gratuitous.

As fun as Lawrence and Feldman are to watch, writer-director Gene Stupnitsky (GOOD BOYS) unfortunately short changes his other two Broadway stars, Broderick and Benanti, by not giving them enough to do. Benanti, who is well known to fans of TV’s THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT for her over-the-top parody of Melania Trump, is capable of so much more comedy than just biting her lower lip in nervous concern for her son’s well being.

All in all though, NO HARD FEELINGS is perfectly fine summer entertainment while we wait for the big tentpole films like the new INDIANA JONES and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE films, BARBIE and OPPENHEIMER to come to our cinema screens.

NO HARD FEELINGS is playing now in Hong Kong and elsewhere.

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