Movie Review – No Hard Feelings

No Hard Feelings accomplishes everything you could want in a comedy/drama. There’s no question that it’s funny. The audience in my theater laughed out loud many times. Additionally, Jennifer Lawrence nails her no-nonsense character. It’s a character that Jennifer has played in numerous movies, so I’m left wondering if this is acting or just letting Jennifer be Jennifer.

Andrew Barth Feldman, who plays opposite Jennifer is fantastic. I totally bought his character’s motivation for his social issues.

Real People with Real Problems

It’s great to see a comedy that has realistic characters who struggle with realistic emotional issues. This is a movie where all of the characters who matter go through a transition and are not the same as when the movie began. That requires great writing and good acting. Both of which this movie has.

Jennifer Lawrence is braver than Katniss

Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t just play brave characters, she is one herself. She repeatedly takes on challenging roles. Sure, her character in this movie is similar to many others that she has played, but looking across her filmography she has chosen to play a lot of characters with disparate motivations. The thing that seems most common is that her characters all display a degree of vulnerability that will be a challenge to perform.

And not only is she unafraid to do nude scenes, but nude scenes that are not at all flattering. In this movie she has a nude fight scene that isn’t remotely sexy. It’s one thing to be nude in a scene that is meant to make an actor look as good as possible. It’s completely different when a character is completely nude in a scene that is unflattering. So kudos to Jennifer for her confidence.

Who is Laird?

I must confess, at no point in the movie did I see the “father” and realize it was Matthew Broderick. Maybe it was the longish hair, but I had no idea until the credits were rolling. To make it worse, when I saw the name Matthew Broderick roll in the credits I thought, “Not the Matthew Broderick?” So even after seeing his name I couldn’t place him as the father. Matthew is getting old. And that means I’m getting old. I’m just not ready for this. 🙂

Grade: B

About The Peetimes: There are a lot of dramatic scenes and dialog that I had to work around, but I managed to find 3 good Peetimes. I think the middle one is the best option.

There are extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of No Hard Feelings.

Rated:	(R) Language | Brief Drug Use | Sexual Content | Some Graphic Nudity
Genres:	Comedy
Starring:	Jennifer Lawrence, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Natalie Morales
Director:	Gene Stupnitsky
Writer(s):	John Phillips, Gene Stupnitsky
Language:	English
Country:	United States

Plot
On the brink of losing her home, Maddie finds an intriguing job listing: helicopter parents looking for someone to bring their introverted 19-year-old son out of his shell before college. She has one summer to make him a man or di…