Sometimes a film manages to subvert your expectations, no matter how many flicks like it you have seen.  When you watch at least one movie a day as I do, there are some predictable parts of anything you see.  That is what makes the rare moments when you are surprised that much more rewarding.  To be clear, No Hard Feelings has a lot of predictable material, and much of it points to troubling aspects of our culture against which I have railed on many occasions.  At the same time, as will hopefully become evident, the main characters seem to learn the lessons from the emotional pain they inflicted on themselves and others.  What the heck am I talking about?  Read on to find out.

It appears that the last way one would describe Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is as having No Hard Feelings.  This is because he had once dated Maddie Barker (Jennifer Lawrence), and he has come to her firmly middle-class Montauk home to repossess her car.  This is being done because she has not paid the most recent tax bill for the house that had been left to her by her mother.  Despite her pleadings with him, saying that she did not mean to ignore him and that she needs the vehicle to continue being an Uber driver, he tows it anyway when her most recent hook-up stumbles outside in his underwear.  Immediately, I do not have high hopes for what I am watching.  Not knowing how she is going to settle her charges without half her income, she roller blades to her other job as a bartender.  This is not fulfilling employment for her as her clientele are her least favorite kind of people: the rich folk that spend their summers in this increasingly gentrified seaside village.  We later learn that the reason for her prejudice is because her father had been an out-of-towner.  He had knocked up his mother, a local, and then wanted nothing to do with her.  While on break at the bar, her friend and co-worker Sara (Natalie Morales) comes across an advertisement for a free car.  There is a catch, however.  Allison (Laura Benanti) and Laird Becker (Matthew Broderick) will give a used Buick Regal to a woman willing to have sex with their son, Percy Becker (Andrew Barth Feldman), though it is not put that bluntly.  Maddie responds to it because she needs a car to continue being an Uber driver and figures this will be an easy was to get a set of wheels.  Yet, when she meets with Percy’s parents, they make it clear that he must not know of their involvement.  Maddie takes him for a shy, nerdy shut-in, which, in fairness, is not an inaccurate description.  He is also an almost fanatical rule follower.  She is not prepared for how set in his ways he is with almost everything he does, and the depth of his naivete.  This latter trait is on full display when she goes to meet him for the first time at the animal shelter where he works.  Everything about her side of the interaction is sexually explicit and suggestive, and the overwhelming majority of it goes unnoticed as he earnestly attempts to complete her application form for adopting a dog.  Indeed, when she insists on driving him home in the van she borrowed from Sara’s husband, Jim (Scott McArthur), Percy assumes he is being kidnapped and maces Maddie.  Her determination to obtain the car helps her to get through the pain, and they agree to an actual date the next night.  Once more, she comes onto him strongly, basically badgering him into skinny dipping in the ocean with her.  Yet, when a group of drunk kids try to steal their clothes, she emerges from the water in the buff and beats them up, getting back their possessions.  At this point, Percy is convinced Maddie is insane.  This opinion is not helped when she will not return his cell phone, and instead drives away in another borrow car with him clinging naked to the hood.  His mind is changed somewhat when they go back to her place after gunning past a freight train to avoid the police.  This time, though, they are prevented from coitus when he breaks out in hives from nervousness.  With every awkward turn, while it further complicates her goals, she shows her counterpart compassion.  A bond forms as they share past experiences, though I will discuss these more in a moment.  One thing they find that they have in common is that neither of them had a prom.  Thus, for their next big date, they dress up in fine clothes, rent a limousine, and go to a fancy restaurant.  After an interruption to their meal by a high school acquaintance of his, he begins discussing his plans for the Fall when he is due to go off to college at Princeton.  Specifically, he references the challenges they would have to overcome in carrying on a long-distance relationship, a level of seriousness for which she is not prepared.  When she speaks to this misunderstanding, he immediately wants to leave, forcing her to track him down in a party with other Princeton hopefuls.  Nonetheless, the worst comes when he overhears his parents talking on the phone about the arrangement they had made with Maddie.  In response, he exposes them by inviting her over for dinner, then sneaking out to smash up the vehicle which she had been promised.  After all this, they then attempt to have sex, unfortunately, though it is, um . . . unsuccessful.  For days proceeding, Percy will have nothing to do with Maddie, and he is understandably angry with his parents.  With all the hurt caused, Maddie decides it is time to make some changes.  This includes letting go of the one thing to which she had been holding onto: the house.  She also makes amends with Percy, though not before having a ride on the hood of his car.  We close with him managing to slip from his parent’s grip and Maddie driving to college.

Though it is not the intended message behind No Hard Feelings, once more we see the emotional impact premarital sex has on our two characters.  The way they each approach the matter before they meet is particularly illustrative.  Maddie claims to only want to “have fun,” which is sharply contrasted by Percy’s rigidity.  They are both obviously wounded from their past experiences, making them treat strangers with suspicion.  Maddie keeps them at an emotional distance, even those with whom she goes to bed.  For Percy it is a physical distance, a decision he makes because of bullying he underwent while in high school.  Thus, one uses others for sex, while the other is too timid to be intimate.  What I would argue is that the Catholic perspective on this matter is in the middle of these two extremes.  I do not believe I need to repeat the Church’s stance on premarital sex, and once more I will use the characters you see here to underscore the psychological damage it can have on people.  Yet, the Church also acknowledges that making love is part of a healthy relationship between a married people.  It is not simply about the physical act, but it is the connection between two people on a deeper level that makes it a part of what is referred to as the sacrament of marriage.  In other words, sex, under the right circumstances, can bring us closer to God through closeness with another.  That closeness is something they realize they need by the end, and they come by this conclusion without actually having sex, despite Percy’s claims to the contrary.

There is a great deal of material in No Hard Feelings that should be avoided, punctuated by the nude fight scene on the beach.  There is also some drug use.  At the same time, I was pleasantly surprised to find the main characters arriving at a desire for healthy relationships.  As such, call this a mixed and cautious recommendation.  At the very least, it is better than I thought it would be.