No Hard Feelings Film Review

This film harkens back to those teenage films of the 1980s in which losing your virginity was the whole point of the film. This is done though with a lot more spit and polish with fine performances from everyone. This takes a different tack though than those films in which a horny teen is desperately trying to get laid, rarely with any success. In this one Maddie, an older woman, is doing everything she can to deflower a 19-year old before he goes off to college. But meets all sorts of resistance. An erotic fantasy of sorts considering the woman is played by the delightful Jennifer Lawrence. Hunger Games of a different nature. As far as I am concerned, she is the cat's pajamas. Here she plays a 32-year old single woman who pulls out every trick in the book trying to seduce a shy virgin. And fails time after time. It is very sweet, smart and often quite amusing, though in a quiet subtle way. Her character is by no means perfect; a manipulator when needed, a love them and leave them gal - which makes her just right for the assignment she takes on.

She lives alone in the house her mother had before she died. But the town Montauk has become the playground of the weekend and summer rich and property taxes have gone up with that. She is on the verge of losing the house and just had her car repossessed by an old boyfriend who she ghosted. In a cute capture of her personality, she comes on to him - I was just thinking last night how much I missed you - please don't take my car. He is just about to fall for it when a man comes out of her home in his underpants - "he is my cousin" - he calls out in Italian - "my Italian cousin" - he grabs her breasts ' "My second cousin".

All looks lost till she sees a classified ad from parents needing a woman between 21 and 25 to "educate" their son. In the ways of love. He is going off to Harvard and is totally inept around women and pretty much everyone else. For this service, she will get a car. You want me to date him or DATE him, she asks his parents. Date him hard. She puts together a battle plan and goes forward - in a tight red dress with cleavage to spare. Percy is played by Andrew Barth Feldman who does the nervous but honorable nerd perfectly. He shows up at a dinner date with coat and tie - and shorts. Following in the footsteps of those old teen comedies, something always gets in the way of the final step - even when naked together in the ocean. Feldman has been in Broadway musicals and in one scene in a restaurant she asks him to play the piano - reluctantly he does a wonderful version of Maneater. A lovely movie moment. The film goes exactly where you should expect it to but always with charm and Jennifer. She rocks.

The father of the boy is played by Matthew Broderick. It took me a few moments to recognize him - blown up a bit - but I expect his casting was no accident having starred in perhaps the best teen comedy of all time - Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Too bad they didn't get Mia Sara as the mother. It has such a generic title that it seems easy to pass it by - perhaps Jennifer Lawrence Walks Naked on the Beach might have brought in a few more people. Men. It was produced by Lawrence who has said she was tired of the high octave films she had been doing - X-Men, Hunger Games, Red Sparrow and just wanted a low key feel good film. She got it. They don't make many comedies like this anymore.