YOU HURT MY FEELINGS

I am quite behind on my posts, here, due to some major life changes. And the summer is always busier than one anticipates, isn’t it? But back in the early summer, my husband and I went to the theater to see a smaller movie titled You Hurt My Feelings. Since it is about writing/a writer, I will review it here and then maybe you’ll see it. It is no longer in the theaters. It is available to stream into your home at Vudu, Amazon Prime, and maybe AppleTV. You could also purchase it as a DVD somewhere or other.

You Hurt My Feelings, starring Julia-Louise Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies, is about the marriage of a middle-aged couple. The plot revolves around Dreyfus (as Beth)’s career as a memoirist and creative writing teacher. She has been working on her first novel for some time and seems to be a bit stuck when she overhears her husband (Menzies as Don) giving his “real” opinion about her writing to his bestie. Obviously, the opinion is not only unfavorable, but in contrast to what he has told her for years. This throws Beth into both a career-downward spiral and a marriage-downward spiral. She confronts. She questions. She mopes around. But we discover, quickly, that this movie isn’t about writing at all. It’s about marriage. It’s about endurance in relationships. It’s about giving your loved ones some space and, indeed, grace. It’s about the dysthymia of getting on in years, dealing with adult children, and being sick and tired of your job—or maybe just being bad at it, about being bad at things. And it has a great, modern, tongue-in-cheek title: You Hurt My Feelings. Don’t we all?

We liked this movie, maybe even more than we expected. Well, maybe. We didn’t have many expectations. We just thought the title was funny. But we have AMC A-List and so we got our tickets and were pleasantly surprised. Some of the younger peeps coming out of the theater said it was “boring” and made other comments that meant they just didn’t get it, so maybe you have to be more mature to appreciate the life-things that are being addressed in this movie? I totally got and appreciated them, and so did Kevin, so much so that for our anniversary like a week later, Kevin gave me a pair of gold, leaf earrings in reference to this movie, and we just looked at each other and laughed and our daughter looked at us funny and we laughed harder because we had basically just recreated a scene from the movie, half on accident. Not that this one is a favorite movie, exactly. It was a little slow, and perhaps not for everyone. But it was chock-full of interesting moments about real-life, committed relationships, interesting characters, mid-life challenges, and featured older actors—leaving their wrinkly necks and eye-bags on display for a celebration of both beauty and normalcy at a more progressed stage of life. The overall experience of the movie is memorable, too.

As for the writing as a topic, I kinda can’t remember much about it except that it fell into that too-easy trend that most movies about writing fall into. In other words, the writing process (including eventual success) is too smooth and too fast, at least at one critical step. While much of the movie is a little more realistic about the struggles of a writing career, the ending included some sped-up timelines (including publication) that made me roll my eyes. Then again, by then I knew I wasn’t there for the writing life. I was there because this was a special movie, something different and refreshing, and one that is well done. And for the record, Rotten Tomatoes LOVES it.

THIS BEAUTIFUL FANTASTIC

Not long after this, the internet that is now my TV plopped a trailer in front of me for This Beautiful Fantastic, a 2016 British film starring Jessica Brown Findlay. I couldn’t resist. Not only does the main character, Bella Brown, want to be a writer, and works in a library, but in the trailer the movie comes across as magical, quirky, and, well, British, which are three of my favorite adjectives involving both cinema and life in general. The preview looked pretty lush and the plot sounded pretty fun—Bella Brown is agoraphobic but is thrown into a relationship of sorts with her cranky, old, man neighbor when she has to fix up her neglected garden or be ousted from her rental flat. This interaction opens up interactions with other people, including the single-dad housemaid/personal chef of said neighbor and an imaginative, mad-scientist guy who frequents the library. Both are romantic options, dangling in front of the viewer and all three of these younger characters are cute as heck (by which I don’t just mean physically).

The components of a quirky, fun romantic comedy were there but every once in awhile it went way off the rails—just for moments at time—and it ended up reading more like a student movie than a serious or even widely-appealing artistic one. (Like seriously, there were these moments when it was like, “Did they really just choose in editing to use the same filter that’s on my iPhone? What is happening?) Also, there were some major movie-plot holes, like how the love triangle (which was so obvious) is ignored (what the heck?), and how the protagonist doesn’t interact with the twins (so why have them there at all?). And the plot overall felt muddled and jumpy, sometimes like it was too obvious, too present. The movie had promise but was too bumpy of a ride for a whole-hearted recommend, and I wasn’t at all satisfied with the ending, especially romantically. Roger Ebert ripped it a new one but the ratings otherwise are okay to pretty good.

As for the writing as plot, it’s sort of a half-hearted thing, not at all central to the story or even Bella Brown’s character. Even still, for good measure, Brown treats her library job with loose hands and then—no surprise at all—finds herself a writing career practically laying out on the street for just anyone to pick up. Big sigh. Makes a good ending, I guess, for all aspiring writers to get handed publishing contracts with the alacrity of audience members receiving giveaways on an Oprah’s Favorite Things episode. Another sigh. Even if they haven’t the real passion or even special skills needed to accomplish it. On the other hand, there were some cute and fun things about the movie in general. So I guess I would recommend a once-view of this movie if it sounds like your type. It’s technically a modern fairy tale and it has some promise. But personally, I was let down by this movie; it didn’t deliver on several levels.