She can take care of herself, unless her plans fall apart. Which they usually do.

Immature, selfish, and reckless. Maybe this can’t define every dirtbag, but it does justice for Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings. As Maddie Barker, the Oscar-winning actress gets to be as unfiltered as her bad behavior needs. Ultimately, the more trouble she gets herself in, the more she grows into a better person. Maddie is redeemable, after all. She’s got a heart of gold. It might be dirt-stained, but it’s there, all right. The laugh-out-loud, foul-mouthed, unapologetic power of this sex comedy is how Lawrence lets loose as the big mess Maddie is.

Jennifer Lawrence’s Maddie Is a Dirtbag You Root For

The movie’s title is a great pun on Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) and his lack of arousal, or Maddie’s unofficial mantra in life. She prefers to keep relationships with guys as extended hookups, without letting them in on that fact and cutting them off without warning. Tow driver Gary (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is hurt over Maddie’s ghosting him, which is partly why when he has orders to repossess her car, he obliges. Luckily for Maddie, the man is indecisive. At a deli, he can’t make up his mind on buying a lemon loaf to go, which should give Maddie plenty of time to free her car from his truck. Unluckily for her, she has the quick wit without the smarts to see it through. Maddie fails twice in the opening minutes. Life is clearly not in her favor.

Maddie faces the real possibility she will lose her late mother’s house, without a car for work and a pile of past due bills getting bigger. Desperate times call for desperate measures. That’s why she agrees to help a pair of helicopter parents (Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) who want their introverted 19-year-old son to lose his virginity before heading off to college. If it means she can get a Buick Regal out of it, she’s game. She has no problem lying either, because sometimes you gotta stretch the truth. She’s not in her early 20s like the parents hoped. She turned 29 somewhat recently. Okay, she’s 30. Maybe 32. Carefully put, her age gives her a maturity to handle the situation as delicately as needed, saying this with a mouthful of brie and crackers. Maddie knows how to bullshit. She doesn’t actually care about this rich family in the slightest.

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The shy Percy has never interacted with someone with an alpha personality like her. To match his feelings, a horror movie sound effect strikes when Maddie arrives at the animal shelter Percy volunteers at, the camera glimpsing her in a frozen stance that Michael Myers would approve of. It doesn’t help that she is stuck driving what appears to be a serial killer’s van. Her dark sense of humor is also for a particular demographic, and Percy is not the target audience. Giving him a ride from the shelter, Maddie lets her mouth run, joking that she’s a flight attendant, who’s killed the pilot, and taken Percy as her hostage. Cut to the teen’s terrified eyes. Percy’s inexperience factors into his interpreting the song “Maneater” as a warning about a monster. Why else would Hall & Oates sing, “Watch out boy she’ll chew you up!” Maddie’s intimidating personality in how she comes on so fast, makes her the maneater in Percy’s eyes, but as the movie goes on, the two realize not everything is how it first appears. Despite Maddie’s don’t-back-down attitude, or more likely because of it, she does not come out unscathed.

‘No Hard Feelings’ Finally Lets Lawrence Show Off Her Comedy Skills

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Because of this, No Hard Feelings doesn’t let Maddie off the hook, letting karma take some swings at her. The opening scene is just the start to the many times she loses control in reckless situations. She gets maced in the face, unable to do much else other than crawl on the grass, screaming, “Why!” When a drunk Percy tries to come to her rescue, his punch misses his target, striking Maddie instead, right in her throat. The biggest error in judgment is by keeping Percy in the dark about her agenda. She’s immature and selfish, but she isn’t a terrible person. A big part of why the character works comes down to the casting of Jennifer Lawrence, who avoids turning Maddie into a caricature existing for gags.

Lawrence is snarky, taking no crap from anybody. At the bar she works at, she’s rude to a rich customer who could have asked nicer for a drink. They open at noon and just because it’s 11:57, doesn’t mean she’s rushing to start on the order. During a night of skinny-dipping, Maddie and Percy almost get their clothes stolen by drunk teens. Charging out of the water, Maddie isn’t a siren, she’s a fierce force like Poseidon. Fully nude, she beats the crap out of the clothes snatchers, then proceeds to swim back to Percy like nothing happened.

The character’s seductive persona is so exaggerated, no one could possibly take it seriously, and Percy is so inexperienced it goes over his head. The first time they meet, Maddie looks and acts like an airhead pinup girl. Later, she tells him, “Ugh, I’m ugly to you,” when he avoids another of her advances, folding her arms and pouting. It’s all too much. Lawrence dials it up like the performance it is, before the real Maddie comes out. When Percy begins to open up to her, she goes quiet, regret on her face. This isn’t like her past hookups, she’s actually taking the time to make a bond, something she’s held herself off from. Sure, going at the speed Percy is comfortable with, is to get the Buick Regal, but she accepts the pacing too. Her discomfort with getting too close to people is even more evident when Percy gets both of them to do a finger trap. To him, it’s a prank. To her, a sudden wave of claustrophobia swells up within her body. If she’s getting Percy out of his comfort zone for a selfish goal, he helps her open up for a selfless reason. He just wants to get to know her.

‘No Hard Feelings’ Lets Maddie Be Endearing Too

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Maddie Barker isn’t just a dirtbag, and this might go back to her daddy issues. Her father abandoned her mother and herself to return to a more respectable family. This might be a good enough reason in how she wants nothing more than to raise a middle finger to all the posh, rich families invading her home of Montauk. But Percy isn’t what she expected from being raised in a rich family. One of their first failed plans to have sex ends with Percy breaking out in anxiety rashes. Maddie may be annoyed at not getting closer to her prize, but she’s also the one applying cream to his back. The moment the two might finally have sex, Percy says the L-word, and Maddie realizes how deep she is getting herself in. She isn’t ignorant to what is happening. Right up until Percy ends up finding out the truth, Maddie seems reluctant on following through with his parents’ plans.

Maddie Barker’s overall good heart leads her to helping out her friends and mend the relationships she soured. She makes up for Gary’s hurt feelings. She fixes her betrayal of Percy. She cleans up her act, improving herself and the situations that she had a hand in screwing up in the first place. More A-list actresses should take on dirtbag roles like No Hard Feelings, using Jennifer Lawrence as inspiration, who pulls no stops with her comedic chops. The performance seems effortless, from Maddie’s messy behavior, her redemption arc, to her curse words along the way.