What’s “No Hard Feelings” About?

A delivery driver (Jennifer Lawrence) desperate for some fast cash accepts a Craigslist ad from a couple, Allison and Laird (Laura Benanti & Matthew Broderick) seeking someone to date their painfully awkward teenage son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman)!

Gotta Keep Him Hard …Oh!!!

Pretenses are something that NO ONE should be under – under any circumstances and when someone does this to another human being and they say to them that one little phrase, “no hard feelings,” that should tell you right there that you were not taken seriously by that individual/group of individuals. I am speaking about the character of Percy in the film. His rich, bratty, spoiled parents tried everything humanly possible to break him out of his shy shell before he left for College to go to Princeton, so what in the hell do they do? Advertise in the newspaper that they are looking for a female to “date” their son so he can become hard and be more of a man instead of a Steve Urkel geek for when he leaves for Princeton! What kind of tactic is that for people who call themselves parents? Who stoops that low? Who? Keeping men hard has been a thing for centuries, hasn’t it? How to make a boy a man can only be done ONE way in the eyes of society – yup, you guessed it …by having sex! Do you personally agree with this? 

Maddie & Percy Get Personal on a Deeper Level

Oftentimes, we hear our parents tell us that they are raising us & the much older generation of adults inform the younger generation that they have been in this world for a very long, long, long time; the World is evil and will chew you up, and spit you out; they’ve seen some pretty brutal things that they wish they could take back; they have stories they could tell you, etc. But, my MAIN point in writing this is that NOT always are the older generation always accurate simply because they have been around the longest and feel they are more experienced than a 20 or 30-year-old young adult – or even a teenager for that matter. Just like people come in all shapes and sizes …well, so does knowledge – it comes from people of all ages, backgrounds, etc. Experience. That’s what counts – and that is what Maddie and Percy both had and shared that led them to stop and take a hard look at their individual lives and see what wasn’t working for them and what they needed to change about it. What started as being deceitful for Maddie proved to be valuable to her and for Percy …you just cannot help but feel sympathy for him!

No Hard Feelings Percy…

What was real for Percy …do you think it was real, overall for Maddie? There goes that damn phrase again …NO HARD FEELINGS! If you had heard what Percy suffered through high school and then to have Maddie, a girl he fell for deceive him like this all thanks to his parents? How could saying no hard feelings suffice and he just be okay with all that has happened to him? The entire time Percy was with Maddie, she showed him what it would be like to be an adult and how to stand up for yourself, how to live and live it with no restrictions! You can see the changes in Percy as the film progresses from shy and awkward to a man who stands up to his parents and sets some ground rules for not only himself – but for his own life, too. The movie is not about getting Percy a “hard-on.” It is about toughening him up into manhood and when he discovers the truth – saying the title of the film to him will not do the trick to make up for the deception they caused him! NOT AT ALL!!!

Trav’s No Hard Feelings Conclusions

This was Jennifer Lawrence’s first motion picture film after she had her child 1 year ago and it was not a flop At least to me because we all know that she made like 6 in a row, so yeah – no hard feelings at all right there, folks! LOL!!! The movie was a great comedy! I would not say that it was erotic or centered around sex. I would say it was aimed more towards – “feelings.” Feelings as in a wide variety of them. For instance …Maddie never could hold onto a solid relationship in the film, she roamed and slept with a different guy every chance she could; she never could say I love you back to any man who told her they loved her; she had commitment issues; was in debt and in risk of losing her mother’s house whereas Percy had everything due to his parents being rich, but he had no self-esteem, zest for life, or friends. See how opposites attract? Maddie had everything Percy had and vice versa. That is what I meant in my 2nd paragraph about experience. Both Percy and Maddie leaned on and learned from each other, so, therefore like I said … who to say that older folks cannot be told or taught something from someone younger?

About the Author

Trav ... Your Movie Critic

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Watching movies is in my DNA. I love going to the movie theater EVERY Friday; well opening weekend and seeing what is hot, fresh, and current and then bringing it directly to YOU....right here in my own words - what I thought of the film with NO spoilers!

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