Director Gene Stupnitsky’s bawdy entry can’t decide what it wants to be.
At times, it displays the energetic, no-holds-barred raunch typical of classics such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Bridesmaids and There’s Something About Mary. A scrappy beach fight scene here is the stuff of cinema legend.
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| After an enjoyable day at the local boardwalk, Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) is delighted by the prize that Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) has won for her. |
It’s almost impossible to achieve both goals; the former too frequently undercuts the latter … particularly given the mean-spiritedness of Stupnitsky and John Phillips’ script. The line between funny and cruel is very thin, and this film too frequently slides onto the wrong side.
Maddie Barker (Jennifer Lawrence), a longtime resident of the Long Island village of Montauk, is appalled by how incoming rich jerks have transformed her community. Rising property taxes are threatening the house in which she grew up, and which holds the memory of her late mother. Maddie’s jobs as bar maid and Uber driver no longer keep up with the bills, and — as this story begins — her car is repossessed by former short-term lover Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
Now reduced to getting around on roller skates, and lacking the additional Uber income, the situation rapidly becomes even more dire. Then Maddie is alerted to an unusual Craigslist job listing from wealthy helicopter parents seeking somebody to “date” their introverted 19-year-old son, and bring him out of his shell before he leaves for Princeton in the fall. The payment: a free Buick Regal.
The quotation marks around the word “date” are telling.
Although the set-up smells uncomfortably like pimping, Maddie is desperate … and pragmatic; her love life has been limited to a long string a short-timers and one-night stands. How different could this be?
She therefore arranges to meet Laird and Allison Becker (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti, both deadpan hilarious), who live in a cluelessly privileged world. Their son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), has no friends, rarely leaves his room, and hasn’t learned to drive; his parents worry that Princeton will eat him alive.
Although their ad specified a woman in her “young 20s,” Maddie argues that her 32-year-old self is guaranteed to be “more sensitive” to the situation. (Lawrence is indeed 32.) Laird and Allison accept this rationale, and caution that Percy must never know about the arrangement. (Well, no kidding.) They explain that he volunteers at a local animal shelter, and suggest that Maddie visit as a potential dog adopter.
At which point, this film goes off the rails for the first time (and certainly not the last).
Maddie charges into the shelter like a sexually ravenous stripper, aggressively baiting the overwhelmed Percy with double-entendres and seductive body language; it feels as if she intends to get to business right there, on the floor. (So much for sensitivity.) No surprise: the deer-in-the-headlights Percy is practically speechless, and clearly astonished that such a woman would give him even a second glance.
This outrageous first encounter then slides into funnier slapstick territory, concluding when the shy Percy agrees to a more “conventional” date the following day.
Although still pursuing her primary goal, Maddie subsequently dials it back a bit; a charming montage finds them having fun at an amusement park, walking one of the shelter dogs along the beach, and so forth. The aforementioned beach skirmish climaxes with a near-death experience — seriously! — that segues to a quieter end of the day.
Percy has relaxed enough to accept the situation, and Maddie recognizes — uncomfortably — that he’s falling in love with her, which wasn’t in the cards. On top of which, she becomes aware of the power she wields, and the potential damage she could inflict.
This leads to the film’s most endearing sequence, during an actual “real date” at a fancy restaurant; on a dare, Percy bravely plays and sings Hall & Oates’ classic “Maneater” to her, on the dining room’s grand piano. Feldman’s performance here is sublime, with Percy nervously looking up every few seconds, making sure Maddie is paying attention, worried about what all the other diners must be thinking.
(Feldman has solid musical chops, having performed the lead of “Dear Evan Hansen” on Broadway.)
Alas, the magic of this interlude — truly, it’ll bring tears to your eyes — is destroyed by the absurdity of what happens next.
Lawrence can’t be faulted; she goes (often fearlessly) wherever the uneven script sends her. But the result is wildly uneven; as carefully as she develops Maddie’s awakening compassion and self-awareness, such nuanced work too often is undercut by contrived set-ups that remove this woman from reality.
Feldman’s Percy is far more credible, the young man’s initial owl-eyed shock and disbelief gradually shading into hope (is this woman really into me?) and then happy acceptance (she is into me!). But the shyness remains; Feldman gets considerable mileage out of Percy’s eye contact, or lack thereof. The young actor’s performance is so strong, and believable, that we begin to grieve … because this scenario can’t possibly end well.
The always enjoyable Natalie Morales is terrific as Maddie’s sardonic best friend, Sara: shrewdly perceptive, and quick with a cautionary one-liner. Scott MacArthur is a hoot as Sara’s macho husband, Jim.
Zahn McClarnon, a truly gifted actor, is shamefully under-used in just two fleeting scenes, as Maddie’s friend and lawyer.
Some of the script’s one-liners are amusing, particularly the barbed age-difference comments that come later in the game. But other little bits are stupid or clumsily unresolved. When Maddie first meets the Beckers, they greet her at the top of the steep concrete steps leading up to their home; Maddie, still on roller skates, awkwardly hauls herself up. That’s just silly; why wouldn’t she remove them?
Much later, the story’s most explosively embarrassing set-piece is filmed by scores of snickering witnesses — Maddie’s behavior here is patently ludicrous — and yet this doesn’t subsequently explode via social media, as if it never happened. Seriously? That’s just sloppy.
Whether this film ultimately earns its conclusion — and, more crucially, whether the premise’s inherent ick factor can be overlooked — will depend of each viewer’s open-mindedness. Much as I enjoyed isolated moments, the whole is far less than the sum of those individually successful parts.
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