Every so often, I end up encountering a film that didn’t get the chance it deserved because some surface detail became the public fixation. It’s not so often that said chance wasn’t given by myself for that very reason. Yes, for as much as I try not to judge films based purely on their marketing, especially since I watch so many damn movies every year, I’ll admit that the premise of this one immediately had me on edge. The main premise of an older woman essentially being hired by the parents of an incredibly awkward young adult to have sex with said incredibly awkward young adult, on first glance, set off one of my hair triggers. I’ve gotten into this in past reviews, where storylines that are usually reserved for more unsettling tones are presented as light and comedic purely because it’s happening to a man as opposed to a woman, furthering the damaging stereotype of men as always prepared for sex… no matter what they themselves have to say about it.
But of course, as is usually the case with getting judgemental about the packaging rather than the content, the ick factor of that idea is the entire point of the film itself.
This is a sex comedy, the like of which that is becoming something of a rarity nowadays after dominating so much of the 2000s and even the 2010s, that almost deconstructs its own position within the larger cinematic landscape. The idea of this disposable form that exists for a good time, but not a long time, that just gets relegated to the status of ‘that thing I watched that one time’ as if human effort never went anywhere near it.
In a direct sense, though, the story is more about how people themselves can end up serving disposable ends. With Jennifer Lawrence’s Maddie, the woman being hired for this service, we have a representative of the service industry for popular summer vacation spots. The people who are expected to cater to any whim that the visitors require of them, up to and including making sure their son gets laid. The emotionally immature rom-com lead is something of a new look for J.Law, but it’s one that works, both as the trying-too-hard older sex kitten and as the genuinely vulnerable human being underneath all the stress and lethargy after dealing with one too many bar patrons.
Then there’s Andrew Barth Feldman as Percy, the socially awkward guy who gets roped into the main shenanigans by his helicopter parents, played by Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick. Benanti and Broderick do extremely well with their roles, giving them just the right vibe that they’re either auditioning for their own TLC show, or possibly in the process of starting their own MLM cult… or likely both. There’s some tepidity to the commentary on the Millennial generation here, where they’re all so sheltered that they’re being set up to fail in a different way than previous generations’ parents have done, apparently, but his performance and the overall framing make it clear that we’re not supposed to be okay with any of this. Like, not even J.Law could make that van look safe; I don’t blame the dude for how he reacted there.
The central idea of giving people the space to grow and make their own mistakes is part-and-parcel with coming-of-age stories, which I guess this falls under the category of, but the delivery and the carefully managed tone help it ring true. Seeing Percy perform at his prom, along with being a brilliantly staged moment in its own right, reminded me a fair bit of when I did the exact same thing at three of my own proms in high school. I went for Eurythmics and Ben Folds rather than Hall & Oates, but all the same, it was a nice reminiscence of when I was pretty much just as awkward as Percy, and in need of my own chances to make my own mistakes in order to grow. Of course, no one pulled this level of chicanery to make those happen, and good thing too, because maturity isn’t something to be forced. Just… do what comes naturally.
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