Tricky things, white lies. Most of the time, they are the oil that lubricates the machinery of our relationships. But they only work for as long as they are invisible. Lies, even white lies, are a little like landmines; stumble across one, and the consequences can be disastrous, even for a marriage as harmonious as that of New York author Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and her psychotherapist husband, Don (Tobias Menzies). When Beth creeps up to surprise Don, she overhears his unvarnished opinion of her latest manuscript. The fact that he lied to protect her feelings doesn’t change the fact that he lied. Beth is devastated.
The perceptive, wry dramas of Nicole Holofcener (Friends With Money) tend to share a similar approach. She chips away at the structural integrity of relationships, injects a needling doubt into the comfortable certainties of her upper-middle-class milieu, sits back and lets her characters tie themselves into knots. Modest in scope and saddled with an unfortunate, simpering score, You Hurt My Feelings lacks some of the bracing bite of her previous films, but it’s honest, acute and relatable.
On Amazon Prime Video from 8 August
