No Hard Feelings: Jennifer Lawrence in Hollywood's coyest sex comedy
Sony PicturesJennifer Lawrence's latest film No Hard Feelings is R-rated and sold itself as raunchy – but is actually "tame and inoffensive", writes Caryn James. Is it a comment on today's "Puriteens"?
In a widely reported comment about her punningly-titled No Hard Feelings, Jennifer Lawrence said: "Everybody in some sense will be offended by this film – you're welcome." Wishful thinking on her part. Tame and inoffensive, No Hard Feelings is Hollywood's coyest sex comedy. Lawrence's character, Maddie (who's 32), is hired by 19-year-old Percy's parents to "date" him, as they put it, so he doesn't head off to college a virginal wallflower. That high concept was so full of edgy comic potential that Sony's publicity and the media coverage bought into the studio's talking points about the film being outrageous and subversive.
In fact, it's retro, following the lead of Pretty Woman, playing into the "Wholesome Escort" meme. But that coyness reveals larger social trends. The modest success of its opening weekend – Variety characterised the $15m US box office as "not bad" – speaks to the audience's hunger for sex comedies, even this bland one. Yet the film also reveals how cautious Hollywood studios remain about sex, especially at a time when the cultural politics of the US is torn between an ever-more conservative right wing and the progressive left.
Maddie is set up as the most sympathetic of sell-outs, a financially-strapped Uber driver whose car is repossessed just when she's trying to save the house her mother left her. In one of the more realistic, funnier scenes, Maddie and her best friend go through worse reasons they've had sex, including not wanting to make the commute home at night. To them, sex is no big deal, so why not get a car out of it? Except in this movie, it is such a big deal that Percy resists. As Owen Gleiberman said in his Variety review: "No Hard Feelings is the first Hollywood comedy about a teenager losing his virginity in which the teenager in question has no apparent desire to lose his virginity."
It might sound as if No Hard Feelings is playing into the "Puriteen" concept: the idea, which many have questioned, that Generation Z doesn't have much sex. Maddie even asks at a high school party, "Doesn't anyone [have sex] anymore">window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'alternating-thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article', placement: 'Below Article', target_type: 'mix' });