As a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Nicole Holofcener’s work I enjoy spending time in the world she creates and the characters who populate it. I may not be the most reliable person to assess her new feature, which reunites her with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (with whom she worked so well on Enough Said).
That’s not to say that a newcomer can’t or won’t find You Hurt My Feelings amusing. It’s just that I find myself smiling at the actors’ entrances, before they’ve said or done anything. You might say I’m pre-conditioned. We meet Louis-Dreyfus as she carries a box of donuts into a store in Manhattan and I’m already having a good time. Tobias Menzies plays her husband, a therapist whose first clients of the day are unhappily married David Cross and Amber Tamblyn. The stage is set for low-key, observational humor with a decidedly New York flavor. (“Do we have any bagels?” is not a line one would likely hear in a screenplay set anywhere else. It is spoken here in frustration by the principal couple’s grown-up son.)
A New Yorker through-and-through, Holofcener doesn’t feel the need to show us any landmarks or promote any particular stores or restaurants. We know where we are in the big geographic picture.
The ensemble supporting Louis-Dreyfus and Menzies is solid and savvy. Michaela Watkins, Owen Teague, and especially Jeannie Berlin bring so much to their parts as best friend, son, and mother, respectively, that you wonder who else could have possibly filled those roles.
You Hurt My Feelings is built on an almost Seinfeld-ish premise, but Holofcener takes this wisp of an idea and creates a likable framework around it with her actors. It’s fun to watch, and if your life hasn’t been significantly altered, at least you have spent 93 minutes in a compatible environment that’s distinctive and appealing. I had a good time.