★
As always, my initial impression of a film trailer was met with hostility from a handful of individuals who argued that I should wait until I’ve seen the whole film before I criticise select scenes. However, those clips depicted Jennifer Lawrence as a woman trying to coerce a younger man (Andrew Barth Feldman) into having sex with her, and that troubling plot remains the same as I watch a “modified” version on my United flight.
Maddie (Lawrence) is a lot more unpleasant than the trailer makes her out to be. She’s juggling jobs as a bartender (which she appears to have pretended to be disabled in order to secure) and as an Uber driver – well, that is, until her car gets taken off her because she hasn’t paid her housing bills. The solution for Maddie comes in the form of a Bruick, to which she’ll get the keys if she can bring young Percy ‘out of his shell’ on behalf of his “helicopter parents” before he sets off for college.
And she seems to have no problem pressuring and manipulating Percy into being intimate with her (telling him not going into the water with her at a beach is basically telling her she’s ugly, and when Percy says no to having intercourse in the sea, Maddie’s response to no consent is not to accept it as is, but to ask ‘why not’), but she eventually draws the line at Percy’s ‘first time’ being while under the influence of alcohol. Maddie’s complete lack of a morally sound standpoint and selfish personality is in no way comedic, but uncomfortable, disturbing and deeply problematic.
In fact, referring back to the notes typed at speed into my phone while watching the 97-minute film, the illogicality of Maddie’s character – and, indeed, the wider plot – is exposed not long into the movie, when the 32-year-old explains to former love interest Gary that one relationship ended up with her feelings getting “intense” and her ending up “freaked out”. That she is completely unable to recognise that sentiment in others is harmful and baffling.
Oh, and the film is still meant to be a ‘comedy’, by the way, even though this appears to be through women being punched and kicked (either by accident or in sensitive areas), scenes which no sensible person would ever enact (not taking your roller-skates off before going up some stairs), Percy’s social awkwardness and painful Gen Z humour which sounds like it’s been ripped from Tumblr. Obnoxious social media influencers are parodied in a way which is stereotypical and vindictive, Maddie’s friend Jim (Scott MacArthur) is literally told to get in the sea at one point, and when she asks Percy’s parents if she needs to “date” their son or “date” their son, the mum simply responds with “yes” – a classic meme format which is beyond stale in 2023.
Are we supposed to find Percy’s mannerisms and characteristics – which are obviously neurodivergent-coded – funny? He’s very literal (when Maddie tells him she had an “intense” dream about him and asks if he has ever had one, Percy opens up about a bizarre one he had about Suicide Squad and Harley Quinn); deals with the animals rather than the customers in his role at the local animal shelter; has friends who are mostly online, and follows rules closely. America’s obsession with mocking shy individuals with poor social skills (see Atypical as another example) is exhausting at this point. Feldman’s portrayal of a young man coming-of-age and establishing his independence is probably the only good thing about this film, but even then, it’s a sideshow to Maddie’s sickening self-interest.
Ultimately, centring this story on a young man exploring his sexuality (which, based on what viewers can surmise from the film, appears to be somewhere on the ace spectrum, given he doesn’t immediately experience sexual attraction towards anyone and only does so with Maddie when a strong emotional bond is formed first) would certainly have gone some way to move the plot away from a 30-something’s malicious and harmful attempts to bag herself a new car and produced a much gentler comedy about the ups and downs of understanding this aspect of oneself. In its current form, No Hard Feelings doesn’t come with a sensitivity it so evidently needs.
Images: Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Liam O'Dell
I watched this last night with my highly sensitive, yet open to vulgar humour, fiancée and she declared it hilarious. She’s the same age as the lead and completely understood that the film was mocking her, not Percy.
The film went far out of its way to demonstrate this. One example being the two clearly het dudes at a party being offended when she told them to “have sex” with each other instead of hitting on her. Not offended at being called gay, no. Offended that she appeared to be mocking the idea that it would be odd for them to be okay with that; which, even in 2023, no douchey frat-bro would think or say.
There was a clever use of satire to poke fun all the way around. At her outdated notions of sexuality, and also at the fake, exaggerated “wokeness” and cancellation that we see today.
It wasn’t a great rom-com. It was cute and funny, and turned a number of tropes on their head in order to examine them. It’s in this area that I think you are missing the point.
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I admire your view that the film is trying to make itself come across as more intelligent than it actually is, but I really don’t think it comes with any logic that a satirical film warrants. I mean, for example, she was perfectly fine to manipulate Percy for the majority of the film in a way which disregards consent, and yet near the end she draws the line at not having sex with him when he’s clearly intoxicated. I don’t think it’s right to brush off all the logical inconsistencies of this film as being comedic hypocrisies.
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