Jennifer Lawrence is a prodigious talent. Since her breakout role in 2010’s fantastic indie drama Winter’s Bone, which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination at age 18, she’s starred in two of Hollywood’s biggest franchises and won rave reviews for her further dramatic turns. By the time she was 26, Jennifer Lawrence had four Oscar nominations—and a win.
Despite being a massive star, Lawrence stepped away from the spotlight for a number of years as her career had taken over, telling Vanity Fair in 2021, “I didn’t have a life. I thought I should go get one.” She’s only starred in four films in the last five years, including Netflix’s star-studded Don’t Look Up and last year’s quiet, subdued, excellent Causeway, which she also produced.
It may feel surprising, then, that her latest role feels like a major departure from those last two, and likely everything that’s come before it. In the raucous No Hard Feelings, Lawrence plays Maddie, a woman living in Montauk who’s struggling to pay for the house her mother left behind. With her home at risk, she applies for a peculiar job she’s the perfect fit for: helping 19-year-old Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) come out of his shell, so he can transition from a shut-in to confident university student. To do that, she’ll have to take his virginity.
But there’s a catch. Percy has no idea that his parents set this up on his behalf so Maddie will have to, er, “date” him, without Percy ever finding out his parents are involved. Yes, it’s a thoroughly outrageous setup, but what’s even more surprising is that Jennifer Lawrence’s performance in No Hard Feelings is showstoppingly brilliant—so fantastic, in fact, that she deserves an Oscar nod.
While many critics are hailing Lawrence’s great comedic performance in No Hard Feelings, she’s played funny before. When she won her Oscar in 2012, at age 22, it was for her role in the romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook. But No Hard Feelings is somewhat of a departure to show off Lawrence’s comedic chops.
While Silver Linings Playbook straddles the line between comedy and drama, No Hard Feelings is the kind of movie we rarely see anymore: a full-throated R-rated raunch fest in the vein of Bridesmaids, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, or Wedding Crashers. Lawrence is so outstanding in this movie that it’s clear adult comedies are primed for a comeback, and she should lead the charge—and keep doing more of them. Lawrence is the new queen of raunch.
Throughout No Hard Feelings, Lawrence exhibits masterful comic timing and a total devotion to physical comedy. In one scene, Maddie is desperate to sleep with Percy so she can get this job over with. To arouse him, she invites him to go skinny-dipping with her on the beach. It’s awkward at first, but Maddie lays on the charm; she even gets a sense that her plan may actually be working. But when a group of drunk people emerge on the beach, they interrupt the potentially intimate moment. They also decide it’s hilarious to steal Percy and Maddie’s clothes—something Maddie does not take lightly.
Set to Hall and Oates’ “Maneater,” a song that Maddie and Percy discussed on their first date, Maddie emerges from the water and races towards the miscreants, launching a full-scale attack on them for stealing her clothes. Shifting from sensitive to searing, Maddie practically transforms into a monster, throwing sand into the eyes of one of the assailants, before beating up the others.
It’s a completely chaotic sequence that’s riotously funny—one cannot truly feel alive until they’ve seen Jennifer Lawrence body-slamming a man on the beach to get her clothes back. Lawrence shows that she’s willing to go practically feral for a laugh. It pays off brilliantly, and it’s the single funniest scene in a film full of laugh-out-loud moments. But her gonzo commitment to physical comedy is taken even further by the fact that she’s completely naked throughout. It’s the kind of commitment to the bit that the Academy needs to take more notice of.
But what really makes Lawrence’s performance so spectacular is how she unveils her character's surprising vulnerability, adding an entirely new dimension to Maddie. Later in the film, Maddie and Percy are on a dinner date. What once felt incredibly uncomfortable now feels natural, as their relationship has developed to a surprising degree. They still haven’t had sex, but it's clear Percy has genuine feelings for Maddie, even if they aren’t requited. When the pianist playing in the restaurant takes a break, Maddie tells Percy to play something for her. In a twist of fate, Percy obliges and makes his way to the piano.
There are layers to Maddie’s stunned reaction. Despite goading Percy into performing at the restaurant, it’s clear that she never expected him to actually go through with it. There’s a genuine sense of pride behind her smile, as he does walk up to play; Lawrence quietly makes clear how Maddie is bowled over by the fact that she’s helped Percy develop the confidence to come out of his shell, in more ways than she thought possible.
But there’s also something more surprising. As Percy serenades the restaurant in a stripped-down version of “Maneater” (the song becomes a recurring joke) it’s clear that Maddie’s realizing she sees Percy as more than a friend too. The camera lingers on Lawrence’s face for what feels like the duration of Percy’s performance (and he performs the entire song). It’s absolutely mesmerizing to watch Lawrence take complete control of her character. Lawrence turns the film on its head, delivering a genuinely moving moment amongst a sea of lunacy.
Absolutely nothing about this should resonate. The entire concept of No Hard Feelings is deliberately ludicrous. It exists in a heightened sense of reality—by this point, we’ve already seen Maddie ride on top of a car, get maced, and, yes, tackle a guy while completely nude. This scene should stick out as an abrupt tonal shift. Yet thanks to Lawrence’s performance (and Feldman’s gorgeous vocals), this very silly sex comedy also becomes emotionally engaging.
Lawrence puts so much into a character that a lesser actor may only understand the surface-level comedy of. Instead, she allows us to see the suffering and regret under Maddie’s hardened, unpredictable surface. The script does well to give Maddie more nuance, going beyond making her just straight-up wild. But Lawrence’s performance adds a sparkling depth to the character; watching Maddie’s walls come down in such a subtle, surprising way is utterly enthralling. At this moment, Lawrence allows us to fully empathize with a character that isn’t so obviously likable.
As the lines between comedy and drama continue to blur together—whether Silver Linings Playbook is a comedy or a drama is arguable, as are many other awards show nominees—all-out, theatrically budgeted comedies seem to be a rarity. They also almost never appear at prestigious award shows like the Oscars. Arguably a single full-on comedy performance has been nominated for an Oscar in the last decade-plus: that of Melissa McCarthy in 2011’s Bridesmaids. With No Hard Feelings, it’s time to make Jennifer Lawrence the next comedian honored for her work.
