As a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Nicole Holofcener’s work I take pleasure in spending time on this planet she creates and the characters who populate it. I might not be essentially the most dependable individual to evaluate her new characteristic, which reunites her with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (with whom she labored so effectively on Enough Said).
That’s to not say {that a} newcomer can’t or received’t discover You Hurt My Feelings amusing. It’s simply that I discover myself smiling on the actors’ entrances, earlier than they’ve mentioned or achieved something. You may say I’m pre-conditioned. We meet Louis-Dreyfus as she carries a field of donuts right into a retailer in Manhattan and I’m already having a great time. Tobias Menzies performs her husband, a therapist whose first purchasers of the day are unhappily married David Cross and Amber Tamblyn. The stage is about for low-key, observational humor with a decidedly New York taste. (“Do we have any bagels?” shouldn’t be a line one would seemingly hear in a screenplay set anyplace else. It is spoken right here in frustration by the principal couple’s grown-up son.)
A New Yorker through-and-through, Holofcener doesn’t really feel the necessity to present us any landmarks or promote any specific shops or eating places. We know the place we’re within the large geographic image.
The ensemble supporting Louis-Dreyfus and Menzies is stable and savvy. Michaela Watkins, Owen Teague, and particularly Jeannie Berlin deliver a lot to their elements as greatest good friend, son, and mom, respectively, that you simply surprise who else might have presumably stuffed these roles.
You Hurt My Feelings is constructed on an virtually Seinfeld-ish premise, however Holofcener takes this wisp of an concept and creates a likable framework round it along with her actors. It’s enjoyable to observe, and in case your life hasn’t been considerably altered, at the very least you have got spent 93 minutes in a suitable surroundings that’s distinctive and interesting. I had fun.