Review: You Hurt My Feelings – Speak now
Directed by Nicole Holofcener
Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies, Michaela Watkins, Arian Moayed
8/10
The trickiness, nuances, and contradictions of how we communicate are explored in such a funny and thoughtful way in this new comedy-drama. It may seem like it’s coming from a very particular New York niche of the overly-sensitive types, though You Hurt My Feelings should come across as a universal tale as it covers a lot of ground in a small amount of time.
Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is a novelist who has a new book coming out, that’s in the stages of being finalised before its distribution. Her husband, Don (Tobias Menzies), claims to have enjoyed reading it, though while out and about, Beth happens to eavesdrop on him telling his friend he actually didn’t like it. And Beth is horrified, trying to find a way to broach this betrayal to Don, while dealing with how she should feel about her work when her most trusted confidante doesn’t like it. What else doesn’t he like about her?
For such a short film, there still feels like there’s a whole world these characters inhabit. Although the film does reach over to cover all sorts of different aspects of how we communicate with each other, with the varying degrees of how we process (or get over) the times when someone hurts our feelings, it still maintains that every scene be so purposeful, that each one really adds to the conversation the film is having.
There feels like there’s no wasted space with any other particular stories going on with these two characters or their friends, as it all gets tied into the theme of communication. The film is witty and amusing enough to lure you in, and it keeps your attention with how engaging (and maybe relatable) the arguments are, which dig into the ways we act and react when getting tense with our loved ones, friends, and family.
You Hurt My Feelings certainly works well as a comedy – it’s bound to make you laugh with its comedic dialogue. But it’s also a stellar drama, taking a fair and humanising approach to all its characters, sometimes making them seem foolish, but other times making them seem simply incisive to discovering the truth of how people feel. It’s quite the exposé of a film, digging deep without getting self-important or losing its humour, which makes this comedy-drama a real winner.
DAVID MORGAN-BROWN