No Hard Feelings              2 stars

After taking some time off to be a mom, actress Jennifer Lawrence of The Hunger Games and X-Men fame tries her acting chops in the R rated raunchy sex comedy No Hard Feelings, written and directed by Gene Stupnitsky. We know that Lawrence can hold her own in comedies. (Remember the David O. Russell movies Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle?) Here she takes on the role of an older woman trying to “date” an introverted nineteen-year names Percy who is about to go to Princeton. It seems that his rich parents, (Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick) are worried about his lack of experience with women so they put an ad on Craig’s List offering a Buick to a woman who would try to bring Percy (Andre Barth Feldman) out of his shell. Maddie (Lawrence) is in trouble financially since all the rich people moving into town have been forcing her property taxes up, so she is willing to try out this offer. Lawrence can deliver on the comedy which includes a few amusing physical bits, but there is something lacking in the writing making it not feel very authentic. It doesn’t go as far as many raunchy comedies like The Sweetest Thing or Neighbors, but it’s also not quite a romantic comedy given the premise. It feels predictable too as Percy is not supposed to know of this arrangement, but it is inevitable that he will find out, which of course he does. There are also a number of appearances by supporting cast that seem to go nowhere, making me wonder why they were even there. (What was the point for Kyle Mooney to be here?) Unless you are a real Jennifer Lawrence fan you can pass this one up and not lose much. You should check out the movie Causeway from earlier this year that featured Lawrence with Brian Tyree Henry.