I saw the MA15+ Rated American comedy drama film
'YOU HURT MY FEELINGS' this week at my local independent movie theatre. This film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Nicole Holofcener whose prior feature film making credits include her debut in 1996 with
'Walking and Talking', then
'Lovely & Amazing' in 2001,
'Friends with Money' in 2006,
'Enough Said' in 2013 and
'The Land of Steady Habits' in 2018. The film has garnered universal critical acclaim and has so far grossed US$4.7M since its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival at the end of January and its US release in late May.
Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus who also Co-Produces here) is a writer having penned a reasonably successful memoir five years ago about the verbal abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her father, often calling her 'stupid' and 'shit for brains'. As a result, now an adult, she suffers with a lack of confidence, although she is happily married to rather unsuccessful therapist Don (Tobias Menzies) and they have a 23 year old son Elliott (Owen Teague) who is an aspiring writer himself and has embarked on his first stage play script although he is a long way off completing it, and in the meantime works as a manager in a marijuana store. Beth also teaches a writing class part time and we see her interacting and encouraging her small handful of would be writers.
At a restaurant to mark their wedding anniversary Don hands Beth a small gift wrapped box which contains a pair of gold earrings in the shape of a leaf as a present, and Beth reciprocates with a box for Don, containing a blue V-neck cashmere sweater. They both gush over their presents. We then meet Sarah (Michaela Watkins) Beth's younger sister who is an interior designer and her husband Mark (Arian Moayed) a struggling Actor. Once a week Beth and Sarah hold a clothing charity store at their local church for the needy and homeless allowing all comers to take one item per day for free. In the meantime Beth has just finished the final draft of her first work of fiction writing, and she is in discussion with her publicist about getting her first novel onto the shelves, but her publicist (who served her well for the publication of her memoir) says it needs more work. Don encourages Beth to seek out another publicist who will see her work for the masterstroke it is!
One day Don and Mark are out for a walk in the park which leads them to a department store where they are seen talking in front of a sock stand. At the same time Sarah and Beth are out in the city and they decide to go into the same store and sneak up behind their husbands and surprise them.
However, the wives are stopped dead in their tracks when Beth overhears Don saying to Mark that he hates her latest book, but he doesn't have the courage to tell her how lousy it is, so he just keeps on encouraging her. Beth is mortified by this overheard admission from her husband and Sarah doesn't know what to say or which way to turn, so they both leave the shop leaving their unsuspecting husbands to continue chatting.
Beth immediately feels betrayed and cheated by her husband who has blatantly lied to her about this and who knows what else. So after going to a bar and drowning her sorrows she comes home and spends the next few nights sleeping on the couch much to Don's dismay. Mark's birthday is coming up in a couple of days and Beth and Don have been invited over for dinner. Mark in the meantime is over the moon because he has been offered a film role, but the day before his birthday he calls Sarah in floods of tears and tells her to come home immediately. When she gets there, Mark is distraught saying that the Director fired him on the first day, and in front of the whole cast and crew and how is now done with acting.
During the birthday dinner, tensions still remain high between Beth and Don, which then overspills into the conversation with Beth coming clean over what she heard that day in the store. Don is surprised by the accusation refuting the claims made by his wife and saying that she took it out of context and that is just his opinion and how much he loves her anyway. Beth storms out of the house and Don follows, pleading with her on the street but she will have none of it.
Later on Elliott comes around to the house and says that his girlfriend ditched him. He's devastated and Beth and Don try to console him. The conversation then turns to Elliott's childhood and how Beth very actively pushed her son into an advanced swimming class as school even though Elliott was not a strong swimmer, resulting in his swim coach banning him from his class saying he needs to join the beginners class. Then on another occasion Elliott handed in an essay which he had worked so hard on but for which he scored a 'C' grade. Beth lobbied his teacher and had his score improved to a 'B' grade even though Elliott knew his essay was 'C' grade material anyway. Don meanwhile sits beside Beth on the couch listening intently to all these little white lies and when Elliott leaves the room, he berates Beth for doing exactly the same things to Elliott as she is now accusing him off. Beth responds saying that her actions then were different, because Elliott was just a child!
Afterwards the conversation turns to their anniversary presents. Beth says she never really liked the leaf earrings he gave her, and goes to their bedroom and returns with a jewellery rack with a dozen or so pairs of leaf earrings neatly arranged all dangling off it. She says she liked the very first pair he bought her, but after that not so much. Don then responds about the V-neck sweaters that she bought him for the past three years saying that men don't wear V-neck sweaters because unlike women they have no cleavage to show off, so he'll never wear them. Following this, they appear to make up and reconcile their differences.
We then fast forward a year and Beth and Don are in a restaurant celebrating their wedding anniversary with Elliott. Don hands over a small gift wrapped box to Beth which she duly opens to reveal a pair of gold leaf earrings. Beth hands over a box to Don in which is contained a V-neck sweater. Both share a laugh about their gifts which Elliott clearly doesn't get, to which his parents respond with 'it's an in-joke'. Upon leaving the restaurant, Elliott hands his parents each a copy of his completed first draft of his stage play, which Beth says I know it's gonna be great. Later that night, the pair both sit up in bed, turn on their lights and begin reading Elliott's script.
The moral of
'You Hurt My Feelings' is that if you tell lies, no matter how small, or how insignificant or how white they may first seem, you're gonna get found out eventually and ultimately suffer the consequences as a result. I found this film more like an elongated episode of
'Seinfeld' but played less for the laughs and more for the dramatic effect. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays the angst ridden emotional cornerstone of the film with her trademark magnetism that she puts into all her roles, and the supporting cast all play their roles convincingly. The film is certainly relatable on many levels, but the comedy is very light on. That said, this is a small film made for a more mature audience whose taste in filmed entertainment rises above the Superhero fare, the shoot 'em up features and the Cops & Robbers offerings that we have become so accustomed to seeing on our big screens with ever increasing regularity - and there's nothing wrong in that! See it if you will on the big screen but you can easily catch it when it arrives on your TV screens, and save yourself the price of cinema entry.
'You Hurt My Feelings' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
