In the often-raunchy comedy “No Hard Feelings” (Sony) star Jennifer Lawrence plays a woman who agrees to sell her body for a Buick. While director and co-writer Gene Stupnitsky and his scripting partner John Phillips attempt to divert the audience from the basic nature of their premise, that bargain remains the film’s foundation.
Lawrence portrays Hamptons bartender Maddie Barker. Already strapped for cash, Maddie finds herself in even deeper trouble when her car is seized in lieu of the unpaid property taxes on the home she inherited from her mother. Since Maddie supplements her salary by earning money as an Uber driver, the loss of her vehicle could be catastrophic.
So she’s primed to answer an online ad placed by wealthy locals Laird (Matthew Broderick) and Allison (Laura Benanti). The couple are seeking someone to draw their emotionally isolated 19-year-old son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) out of himself by, among other things, seducing him. In exchange, they offer the aforementioned auto.
The humorous dialogue sometimes hits home when it’s not focused exclusively on bedroom antics. The screenplay also attempts to win sympathy for the principals by recounting various humiliations to which each has been subjected in the past. And Percy, unaware of the real nature of his relationship with Maddie, seeks to deepen it before becoming physical with her.
Yet there’s no evading the fact that Maddie is engaged in what amounts to a thinly disguised form of the world’s oldest profession. Nor are Stupnitsky and Phillips above having Lawrence appear in the nude for an extended scene that, while it involves skinny-dipping, stolen clothes and a fight, rather than mating, is nonetheless exploitative.
The film contains strong sexual content, including a benign view of prostitution, nonmarital activity and full nudity, drug use, a couple of profanities, several milder oaths, pervasive rough language, some crude and crass expressions and an obscene gesture. The OSV News classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
