Percy Becker’s parents are pretty worried about him.
The socially awkward teen is heading off to Princeton in the fall. And the Beckers fear that if Percy doesn’t start driving, drinking and dating (all crucial life experiences, in their opinion), his college days will be just as miserable as his high school years have been.
Anxious and defeated, the Beckers place an ad in the newspaper. Wanted: an early to mid-20s woman who will “date” their son and break him out of his shell.
Maddie is a bit older than what the Beckers were hoping for. But, as she tells them, her maturity will help her to handle Percy’s situation with the tact and sensitivity it deserves.
Sure, she’s not thrilled at the prospect of having to sleep with a guy more than 10 years her junior—especially since Percy can’t find out that his parents hired her—but she’s also really motivated. The bank just repossessed her car after she failed to pay the property taxes on her house. But in order to earn the money she needs to save her house, she needs a car to Uber with. And that’s just what the Beckers are offering.
The whole thing reeks of disaster. But hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Percy and Maddie develop a genuine friendship. They help each other heal from their painful pasts and give each other the courage needed to pursue the futures they want—a surprisingly sweet element in movie that has a lot of other problems.
The Beckers genuinely care for their son, despite their misguided expressions of concern for him. That said, Percy rightly calls them out for “helicopter parenting.” He asks them to give him the space to fail or succeed on his own. And they comply with his wishes.
We learn that Maddie gave up her dream of traveling the world in order to care for her ailing mother. Elsewhere, someone selflessly gives up a large financial payout in order to help a family in need. Characters make amends for past wrongs.
There’s a joking reference to Buddha.
In case it wasn’t obvious from the introduction, the Beckers are essentially hiring Maddie to have sex with their son. And there’s some commentary about their approval of sex-workers.
In an attempt to finish the job quickly, Maddie dresses provocatively and flirts with Percy in a manner that leads him to believe she’s a predator. (And it doesn’t help that she inadvertently kidnaps him.)
Once the misunderstanding is rectified, Maddie and Percy begin to go on dates, since Percy tells Maddie that he doesn’t want to have sex with someone he doesn’t know or like. This is starkly different than Maddie’s own experiences with sex, which have all been brief and casual. But Maddie complies with Percy’s wishes and tries to get to know him better. (Later on in the film, she declines to go all the way with him when he’s drunk and unable to make a good decision about sex.)
Maddie and Percy skinny dip in the ocean. When a group of teens steals their clothes, Maddie gets out of the water to chase after them. This scene includes her full-frontal nudity. Later, Percy runs out of the water using his hands to strategically cover himself.
Maddie hooks up with a guy in a scene that includes a graphic glimpse at his anatomy played for humor. We also see her trying to stop their make-out session to get to know him better before they have sex.
A couple removes their clothing and has sex in a bed (we see them from the shoulders up). Another couple is caught in bed together (still mostly clothed aside from the guy’s shirt), but they explain they haven’t had sex. A man and woman leave a house in nothing but their underwear (and the man gropes his female counterpart). Maddie gives Percy a lap dance, encouraging him to smack her rear. A couple removes a condom from its packaging.
Female characters wear revealing outfits in several scenes. Characters of both genders are objectified by the opposite sex.
Maddie and her friend, Sara, list all the different reasons they’ve had sex with men. A man’s wife is irritated when he talks about a woman he had sex with before their marriage. There are multiple jokes about intimacy and genitals. A woman calls her husband out when he mentions a pornographic website. There’s a question regarding someone’s virginity.
We see a high school-aged boy wearing a skirt. Maddie hurls an insult at two teen boys related to homosexuality, and they begin to film her, calling her homophobic. She defends herself by saying she’s had sexual encounters with women.
Percy says that someone at his old school started a rumor that he had had sex with his parents after learning that he sometimes still slept in their bedroom when he was scared. Percy’s parents tell Maddie that they know their son isn’t gay because of the porn he watches.
We learn Maddie’s dad wasn’t in the picture when her mom got sick because he had a family in the city. When he learned her mom was pregnant, he paid her off and bought her a house to keep her from revealing the affair to his wife.
Maddie says she had teachers who asked her to prom. We learn that one of her classmates did have sex with a teacher and that the teacher went to jail (but they wound up marrying years later). Maddie implies that Percy’s former male nanny was a predator (though he wasn’t).
Maddie gets into a violent brawl with three drunk teenagers after they steal her and Percy’s clothes. During this sequence, there are multiple punches to the groin areas of men and women (which is amplified by the fact that Maddie isn’t wearing clothes).
A woman gets sprayed in the face with mace. Someone breaks down a door. Percy accidentally punches Maddie in the throat.
Some people intentionally destroy a car. There are two incidents where characters jump onto the hood of a car while the vehicle is moving. And during one of these scenes, the hood-clinger’s rear is set on fire after the car runs over a grill. Maddie and Percy are nearly hit by a train when Maddie drives a car over the tracks.
Percy plays a violent and gory video game online. There’s a joke about suicide.
Sara says she once had sex with a man because she feared he would kill her. We hear a woman was arrested for elder abuse.
We hear about 60 uses of the f-word, 10 uses of the s-word and one use of the c-word. God’s name is taken in vain nearly 20 times, including one pairing with “d–n.” Christ’s name is abused once. “A–,” “a–hole,” “balls,” “b–ch” and “h—” are all heard as well. And someone makes a crude hand gesture.
Maddie orders a drink for Percy, who is still underage. He drinks more and more throughout the film. Someone jokes about his low alcohol tolerance when he gets violently ill after mixing an over-the-counter pain reliever with alcohol.
People (including underage characters) drink throughout the film, sometimes to excess. Many high school-age teens drink at a party, which is allowed by the parent chaperones. Percy’s parents allow him to drink wine with a meal.
Maddie and her friends smoke marijuana and cigarettes. We learn that a rescue dog accidentally got addicted to cocaine while working with a police K9 unit.
Several scenes take place in bars. Maddie is a bartender.
The whole premise of this film is based on lies and deception. When the truth comes out, certain characters are understandably hurt. And the backlash that follows is just as painful for those at whom it’s directed.
Maddie tells Percy she sent her absent dad a letter once, but she says it was returned unopened. It broke her heart, leading to a pattern of dumping guys (or just ghosting them) before they can get close to her. And after being warned by a couple of her exes, Percy fears Maddie is ditching him too when she says she doesn’t want to do long-distance after he goes to school.
We learn that Percy had to switch schools his freshman year because of a series of nasty rumors. Percy’s parents are overbearing, still monitoring his location and internet activities even though he’s technically an adult. And he’s upset when he realizes they’ve heavily interfered in his life (including getting a bully expelled).
Part of the reason that Maddie is unable to pay her property taxes on time is because her small town is increasingly becoming gentrified and more expensive to live in. Maddie takes her frustration out on one of the rich folks summering there, shouting at him and getting into a scuffle over a tip jar. (There’s a comparison of gentrification to how Native American land was taken by the U.S. government.)
Maddie forces Percy to vomit by sticking her fingers down his throat after he mixes medication and alcohol.
When Maddie’s car is towed, she tries to steal it back, with embarrassing results. She repeatedly tries (and sometimes succeeds) to get Percy to break rules and laws.
We hear jokes about disabilities and medical conditions. There’s a question about whether a woman used the diaper of her Halloween costume as a toilet. (She dressed up as a baby.)
After a girl Percy’s own age shows interest in him, Maddie gets jealous and acts rudely towards her. Maddie gets herself and Percy kicked out of an arcade after she’s quite nasty to the children playing there.
You know, it’s one thing to be worried about your shy kid breaking out of his or her shell. It’s another to hire a woman to “date” him for the summer so he’ll be ready for sex and alcohol in college.
As it turns out, what Percy really needed was a friend, not a girlfriend. And as it turns out, Maddie needed a friend, too.
Unfortunately, that friendship—and, of course, the plot of this sex comedy—is built on so much problematic content. This film is chock-full of nudity, sex, obscene language, violence, underage drinking, rule- (and law) breaking and other bad behaviors.
All, of course, in the name of comedy.
But trust me: You really don’t want your college-bound teens—or anyone else in your family, for that matter—watching this film before they head out on their own.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
