Title – No Hard Feelings (2023) 

Director – Gene Stupnitsky (Good Boys) 

Cast – Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Matthew Broderick, Natalie Morales

Plot – Into her early 30’s, the non-committal Maddie (Lawrence) takes on a Craigslist job requiring her to date the socially awkward Percy Becker (Feldman) and bring him out of his shell before college, leading to a series of hi-jinks that will change the course of Maddie’s and Percy’s lives forever. 

“This kid’s undateable!”

Review by Eddie on 28/06/2023

In an age where the cinematic comedy is few and far between, it’s nice to see Good Boys director and quiet of late star Jennifer Lawrence do their best attempt at bringing back the laughs to the public domain with No Hard Feelings, a familiar coming of age/finding oneself affair that has been pushed as some type of Superbad/American Pie like offering but is actually a far more grounded film that morphs more and more into dramatic territory as the runtime wears on. 

It’s not to say Feelings doesn’t offer up its share of low brow jokes and crazed hi-jinks, naked beach fights and finger traps included, but you’d be right in expecting something far raunchier and rowdier than what you get here basing a judgement off the promotion of the film and at the end of the day what the film surprisingly needed was more of these wild antics and beefier jokes as when the mild chuckles dry up and the dramatic flavour takes hold, Feelings loses itself, becoming a master of nothing in an attempt to juggle its tonal swings. 

Credit must always go to comedies that try and balance out the low with the high and Feelings does at least have more heart and soul that most other recent Hollywood comedies that have mostly failed to ignite over recent times but there’s a sense here that Feelings doesn’t ever come to grips with what exactly its looking too achieve overall, wasting a committed lead duo in the process who both deliver performances that deserved more. 

At one time appearing in what felt like every other film, it’s great to see Lawrence back in front of the camera after a lull in work as she focused on her life away from the camera and she once more proves to be one of the most versatile leading ladies in the business with an against type performance as the woman-child Maddie, who has a commitment issue and finds herself attempting too “date” Andrew Barth Feldman’s awkward 19 year old Percy for the reward of a car. 

Lawrence goes all in here and when Feelings gets weird and wacky it’s Lawrence that is always front and centre and Feldman is able to play a solid foil to the more noticeable turn of his co-star but despite some solid early moments and memorable antics in the mid-section, Feelings isn’t able to be the big screen comedy return many are waiting for for a genre that has virtually disappeared from screens across the globe in favour of the streaming world that has seen quality drop to all time lows. 

Final Say – 

There’s some laughs to be had from No Hard Feelings and there’s no denying Jennifer Lawrence gives it her all but an identity crisis and an increasingly poor hit rate as the runtime wears on stops this new high profile comedy from making a significant mark. 

2 1/2 finger traps out of 5