‘No Hard Feelings’ Review: Jennifer Lawrence Shines in Sweet and Saucy Summer Comedy – Hollywood Reporter

No Exhausting Emotions, Gene Stupnitsky’s satisfyingly humorous summer time comedy, opens with a tow truck and a determined lady.

The morning after a one-night stand with an Italian stranger, Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) wakes to search out her automobile being impounded by the county. Exhausting instances have fallen on the Montauk native, who dietary supplements her bartending earnings by driving for Uber. She owes hundreds in property taxes, and it doesn’t assist that her ex, Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), whom she ghosted after three months of courting, is the one seizing her automobile. His bitterness about their lack of closure means he undoubtedly received’t do her a stable.

It’s beneath these horrible circumstances that Maddie finds a peculiar Craigslist commercial. A wealthy couple (performed by Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick), determined for his or her son (Andrew Barth Feldman) to achieve confidence earlier than faculty, is on the lookout for somebody to casually date him. Love, lust and sexual experimentation will loosen up their anxious teen and catapult him into maturity, they hope. Oh, and they’re going to give the household’s previous Buick to whoever will get the job accomplished.

This premise instigates the motion in No Exhausting Emotions. The movie, directed and co-written by Stupnitsky (Good Boys), is modeled after the raunchy comedies of the early aughts — the type of mid-budget studio flicks that find yourself buried within the algorithmic insanity of a streaming service lately. This ethereal and refreshingly low-stakes comedy could have you steadily chuckling, if not essentially rolling on the ground laughing. Nevertheless it additionally has a shocking quantity of coronary heart.

Lawrence is a giant a part of the rationale No Exhausting Emotions works. She’s sharp and sassy because the hyper-independent, emotionally avoidant lover with a brief fuse. It’s enjoyable to look at the actress embrace her sillier register, however her dramatic expertise are a boon, too, lending depth to a personality that might be one-note and making it simpler to consider the extra emotional turns the movie takes later.

After responding to the Craigslist advert, Maddie (nonetheless and not using a automobile) rollerblades to the house of the Beckers. That entire sequence, from Maddie struggling to skate up their hill to her interview with the mother and father, bursts with a wry, awkward humor which will remind viewers that Stupnitsky sharpened his expertise as a author on The Workplace.

Maddie manages to persuade Allison (Benanti) and Laird (Broderick) that, though she’s older than the requested age (early-to-mid 20s), she’s the correct individual to assist their son Percy (Feldman) out of his shell. As this stuff go, Maddie should maintain the trade with the mother and father a secret and stage a meet-cute with Percy. Their first encounter is, conveniently, on the animal shelter the place Percy works throughout the summer time. He’s not an area like Maddie; he’s a “summer time individual,” a phrase Maddie scornfully makes use of to seek advice from the vacationers driving up the price of dwelling.

Maddie comes on sturdy and Percy, who prefers to be alone, rejects her preliminary advances. Feldman’s chronically uncomfortable teen performs effectively in opposition to Lawrence’s energizer bunny-esque grownup. The 2 symbolize a generational divide between Gen Z and elder millennials, a distinction that gives the substance for lots of the movie’s jokes. Maddie doesn’t perceive why Percy doesn’t drink or know drive, or why he isn’t consistently attractive. “What’s mistaken together with your era?” reactions change into one thing of a chorus, which begins to really feel drained by the top of the movie. Percy, then again, finds himself concurrently drawn to and afraid of Maddie, who he, on a couple of event, suggests embodies the Corridor & Oates track “Maneater.”

There’s extra to every of those characters than meets the attention. Stupnitsky dials down the depth of the primary act — with its sharp comedic timing and energetic slapstick — to make manner for sweeter moments with Maddie and Percy. On a sequence of dates, the 2 understand that they’ve extra in frequent than they initially thought. Maddie shares the explanations she by no means left Montauk with Percy, whereas Percy grows extra assured, discovering small moments to behave on his bolder impulses.

In its dedication to a selected type of sentimentalism, No Exhausting Emotions doesn’t totally lean into the raunchiness some would possibly anticipate from its trailer or early buzz. It additionally doesn’t change into a Licorice Pizza type of story — Maddie is obvious on her finish aim and Percy’s awkwardness can’t be overcome so simply. From its early moments, the movie means that the bond between these two lonely souls is predicated on the energy of their friendship. The movie’s shift right into a extra emotional gear isn’t seamless — the narrative takes some clunky turns as a way to maintain itself shifting — however it’s in the end endearing.