"No Hard Feelings" is a painful attempt at sexual humor that largely misses the mark. Rather than presenting an original, engaging narrative, it resurrects outworn tropes from 1980s comedies. Similarly, it focuses on adolescent boys' pursuit of sexual experience. Jennifer Lawrence's nude scene feels more like a way to reinvent her image than a natural progression of her career. In striving to shed her 'serious actress' persona, she only manages to project an air of trying too hard to be avant-garde.
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"No Hard Feelings," directed by Gene Stupnitsky and co-written with John Phillips, presents an uncomfortably one-sided view of nudity. It's a sexual comedy where only the women are fully exposed, while the men remain partially clothed. Despite both genders partaking in sexual scenes, the male characters never appear completely unclothed. This unbalanced representation feels more like the fulfillment of male fantasies than a fair portrayal of sexuality.
The movie feels like a misguided attempt at championing female empowerment. It crafts a narrative around a sex worker who denies her profession. "No Hard Feelings" essentially revolves around sexual trade, yet fails to openly acknowledge this. It's a story about a woman using her body to gain material rewards, masquerading as something else.
The story centers around Maddie Barker (Lawrence), a 32-year-old woman struggling financially. She decides to respond to an advertisement placed by wealthy parents offering a new car to a woman willing to sleep with their socially inept 19-year-old son. This plot reeks of outdated, exploitative tropes and neglects to realistically explore the consequences of such arrangements.
Maddie, a permanent resident of the affluent vacation town of Montauk, Long Island, struggles to fit in with the wealthy summer visitors from New York City. Maddie harbors resentment towards these individuals due to her socioeconomic status and past. She is the illegitimate child of one of these wealthy residents. Her disdain for their wealth and success mirrors her own insecurity about her financial and social standing.
Maddie's financial struggles stem from her inability to keep up with her real estate taxes and car payments. It leads to her house being under lien and her car being repossessed by her ex-boyfriend Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). In an attempt to win back her vehicle, she tries to seduce Gary, but her efforts are thwarted by her current fling's untimely appearance.
The plot takes a ridiculous turn when Maddie, now without a car and jobless, resorts to roller-skating as her primary mode of transportation. These scenes aim for physical comedy but instead exude an air of silliness and desperation. Maddie's attempts to steal back her car while on roller skates are particularly absurd.
The narrative continues with Maddie answering a peculiar newspaper ad in a desperate attempt to solve her financial woes. Wealthy parents Laird and Allison Becker (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) have posted an advertisement seeking a woman to deflower their introverted 19-year-old son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), offering a brand new Buick as payment.
However, the premise is flawed. The idea that sexual experience automatically equates to social maturity is wrong, and the suggestion that driving for Uber is a viable solution to significant financial issues is laughably unrealistic. The portrayal of Maddie as a heroine is difficult to accept, given that her plans for financial stability rest on the unlikely acquisition of a Buick.
"No Hard Feelings" presents Maddie as a combatant and self-entitled character, desperately trying to assert her independence and power. Yet, the narrative reduces her to a pawn, a sex worker controlled by wealthy manipulators. Her refusal to accept this reality further exposes to next interaction.
