The new R-rated romcom movie “No Hard Feelings,” starring Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, has hit Netflix and is one of the top ten movies, coming in at number seven. The movie “No Hard Feelings,” directed by Gene Stupinksky, was released in late June earlier this year, and is now available to stream on Netflix.
The movie begins with our main character, Maddie Barker, played by Jennifer Lawrence. She is a thirty-one-year-old woman who has fallen into hard times and can’t seem to catch a break, as the first scene is her car being repossessed by no one other than her ex, Gary, played by Ebon Moss-Bechard. This puts a strain on Maddie’s income, as she is a bartender by day and uber driver by night and is trying to save the foreclosed house that her late mother left her.
Maddie is struggling and needs a quick solution, so she turns to Craigslist in hopes of finding a solution to her financial problem. She comes across an interesting listing that offers a Buick Regal in exchange to date a rich couple’s 19-year-old son, Percy, played by Andrew Barth Feldman. The couple, played by Mathew Broderick and Laura Benanti, wants to “get him out of his shell” before he leaves for Princeton University in the fall. Percy is clueless of this setup by his parents. Maddie is hesitant, but desperate and accepts the offer under the impression the job would be a walk in the park. However, Percy’s social awkwardness, anxiety-ridden, paranoid personality has Maddie struggling to get the job done as quickly as initially intended.
Throughout the movie, Percy who has a shy, timid personality and is adamant about maintaining his abstinence, is the perfect foil to Maddie’s overconfident and outgoing personality. This is clear when Maddie goes to beat up troublesome teens and body slams one, au naturel. The movie is filled with exciting, funny, quirky, and even some raunchy moments, but there are also wholesome moments throughout the film where there is a growing friendship budding between the two main characters.
To be fair, you can’t help but think how this movie would be received by viewers if it was reversed: a grown man pursuing a teenager. Nevertheless, it was filled with moments of laughter and self-reflection amongst the majority of the characters. Each character taught the other a lesson or quality that they were missing and triumphed by the end of the film.
Aside from the various comical dialogue within the movie, you can take away the lesson of letting go and/or moving on. The movie does a great job of highlighting that coming-of-age happens at any age. Sometimes we are stuck, but it takes the right person or wake up call to bring to terms that change is inevitable and a tool to use to move through life in the best ways possible.
The movie has a late 80s and 90s style theme to it. When you think of movies like “Can’t Buy Me Love” or even “10 Things I Hate About You,” this movie is a modern-day adaptation of those feel-good rom coms that we rewatch and title cult classics. Could this be one too? This movie is a great feel-good movie to watch. However, not with the family.
