'You Hurt My Feelings' review: Tiny problems, big consequences

An author overhears her husband dismissing her work in "You Hurt My Feelings," a small comedy with minor conflicts that, for its characters, carry the weight of the world.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is Beth, a New York author who is working on her first novel, following her modestly received memoir. Tobias Menzies is Don, her therapist husband, who has settled into a too-comfortable groove at work, and is openly confusing patients with one another. Michaela Watkins, Arian Moayed and Jeannie Berlin round out a fine supporting cast and build out the couple's network of family and friends.

Beth and Don lead a comfortable life and if anything, they're a little too warm with one another, sharing licks of the same ice cream cone while strolling through Central Park with their adult-age son (Owen Teague). But Beth's inner world comes crashing down when she overhears Don criticizing her work, when in his comments to her he's been nothing but complimentary.

Writer-director Nicole Holofcener, who teamed with Louis-Dreyfus 10 years ago on "Enough Said," creates a rich environment where words have stakes and emotions have heft. Is it more important to be honest or supportive? How much of our self-worth do we tie up in our work?

These are questions she poses and lets her characters wrestle with in open terms, producing alternately insightful and hilarious observations. "You Hurt My Feelings" knows there are bigger problems in the universe than a miscommunication or a bruised ego. But just because they're first-world problems doesn't mean they're not huge problems in the tiny bubble we all create for ourselves. It's these little things that make up a life.

'You Hurt My Feelings'

GRADE: B+

Rated R: for language

Running time: 93 minutes

In theaters

agraham@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @grahamorama