No Hard Feelings

 

IIn Director Gene Stupnitsky's No Hard Feelings, Jennifer Lawrence plays Maddie, a 30-something bartender / Uber driver in Montauk, New York, who has gotten behind in paying her property taxes and stands to lose the only home she's ever known.

After her car is impounded, Maddie discovers a Craigslist ad placed by a couple (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benenti) who are offering an automobile as payment to a twenty-something woman who devirginizes their anxious 19-year-old son (Andrew Barth Feldman), who is heading for Princeton in the fall.

Despite not meeting the age-requirement, Maddie applies and is hired. What proceeds is an uneven -- but frequently quite funny -- tale of two broken people who come to better understand themselves by facing the scariest thing they know -- human connections.

The premise is ridiculously sticky but both Lawrence, who is one of the film's producers, and Feldman are so invested in capturing both the outrageousness of the story's action and the warmth that lies at its heart that despite narrative holes and continuity gaffes it delivers an affirming glow after the credits roll.

Lawrence gives an assured A-lister performance and young Mr. Feldman (a former member of the High School Musical series) has a nice moment at the piano as he serenades Maddie in a restaurant, turning Hall and Oates' Maneater into winning seduction.