You Hurt My Feelings

An honest comedy about honesty, You Hurt My Feelings finds an underlying sweetness beneath its blunt title and slightly misanthropic worldview.

The latest slight but amusing effort from veteran director Nicole Holofcener (Friends with Money) pokes fun at the absurdities of modern relationships via the lighthearted travails of a languishing writer enduring a midlife crisis.

Although it explores familiar themes of aging, parenting, and shifting family dynamics from a uniquely female perspective, the film digs beyond the usual surface observations about writers and their creative process with sincerity and a throwback vibe.

The story follows Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a New York author who mentors aspiring writers at a local university but struggles to follow up her own successful memoir with a novel. She’s happily married to therapist Don (Tobias Menzies), even as both have hit a rut and question whether they still have the talent and passion for their chosen professions.

Lacking positive feedback, Beth is galvanized by Don’s supportive reaction to her drafts. That is, until Beth and her sister (Michaela Watkins) decide to surprise their respective spouses, and instead overhear an exchange in which Don expresses how he really feels about her literary follow-up — and it’s not flattering.

The incident triggers a downward spiral while revealing deep-rooted insecurities. “I don’t know how I can look him in the face ever again,” Beth fumes.

Was she eavesdropping on a meaningless conversation or is she justifiably furious about being misled? Either way, it drives a wedge into Beth’s longstanding marriage that might not be salvageable.

Holofcener’s sharply observed screenplay is a seamless fit for the comic versatility of Louis-Dreyfus — reuniting with the filmmaker a decade after the delightful Enough Said — whose performance generates hard-earned sympathy by balancing external confidence with internal vulnerability. Meanwhile, David Cross and Amber Tamblyn offer some hearty laughs as two of Don’s frustrated patients.

Sprinkled with deadpan bemusement, the film overcomes some third-act contrivances to expose the narcissist in us all, and how ego creates a stubborn barrier to honesty and trust.

At its core, You Hurt My Feelings is a bittersweet character study about searching for elusive personal and professional fulfillment. Yet aside from its quirks and neuroses, it conveys genuine optimism through universal truths.

Rated R, 93 minutes.