Movie Number 24 of 2023
The Movie: No Hard Feelings
The Cinema: Hoyts Victoria Gardens
Stars: 3
File under "Meh" and "Not as Bad as I thought it was going to be. "
This film has come out just before all the really good blockbusters. Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible Part who cares, the new Wes Anderson are all due out soon.
And then we have this 'comedy', No Hard Feelings, a vehicle for a post-maternity Jennifer Lawrence, with a light on story and that's about it.
What's it about? Cassie (Jennifer Lawrence) is a bit hard up. A Montauk native, she's lived in the same house all her life, but is currently struggling to pay her land tax thanks to the car she uses to Uber drive being repossessed. Her way to getting her house, and her life back, is to do a bit of moonlighting. She's employed by The Beckers (Matthew Broderick and Laura Bernardi), the ultimate rich, priviledged helicopter parents, to help "socialise" their 19-year-old son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) and treat him to the ways of the world.
Percy is an introverted nerd. His folks basically don't want him to turn up to college a virgin.
Cassie is offered a car to get this job done.
So basically, she's been hired out to deflower the poor kid.
But thankfully, Cassie is somebody with a brain and a heart. The two become friends in a gentle younger kid, older woman sort of way.
So yes, it's silly and a bit raunchy, but it's very safe. It could have gone so much further. Also, Lawrence's likeability goes a long way to saving this, as done Matthew Broderick's dorkiness - I quite liked this.
This is a movie you don't have to engage your brain to enjoy. The bogans sitting behind us thought it was hysterical.
One of the things I liked was how it shows the struggles of the townies who live in these costal tourist towns and how they manage through the off-seasons. This rang really true. There are also some really good physical comedy during the movie - some of it surprising.
The rest was just meh.
There's a bit of full-frontal nudity, which is probably what gave this the rating of MA15+.
Other than this, there's not much to say. I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. It was good not to have to fully engage to enjoy it as it was.
This isn't my normal sort of film and it's good to know I didn't walk out hating it.
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