Movie Number 25 of 2023
The Movie: No Hard Feelings
The Cinema: Village Cinemas - The Rivoli, Camberwell
Stars: 4
After seeing the shorts for this, I put it on my list of movies to watch. It looked light and fun and a little bit out of the norm. Smart enough to keep my attention, but not overly cerebral. A romantic comedy for grown ups. Count me in. It seemed like the perfect rainy day movie.
And it was. Both a rainy day and a decent romantic comedy for grown ups.
The story is based around Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Don (Tobias Menzies), that couple you love to hate for them being so perfect. They live the perfect live in the Upper West Side of New York. Beth, a writer and writing teacher is trying to get her novel published. Don, a therapist, is beginning to doubt his effectiveness. This is the couple who share everything and are comfortable in their co-dependence. Yes, these are people of privilege who are aware of the same fact.
They have a wide circle of friends. Beth and her sister, Sarah (Michaela Watkins) have a stroppy ageing mother (Jeannie Berlin). Don's patients are an interesting bunch who bring a great deal of humour to the movie. Beth and Don also have a twenty-something son, Eliot, who's trying, and failing to leave the nest.
Things, however, start to fall apart when Beth hears Don tell his brother-in-law Mark (Arian Moayed) that he does not like the new book, despite telling her otherwise, that things start to fall apart.
Writer/Director Nicole Holofcener, who's responsible for the sleeper hits Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Enough Said, and Friends with Money works her magic on this film as well. Holofcener writes gentle, relatable comedies for grown ups. Many of us can see ourselves in the situations in which her characters find themselves. The script is excellent - and laugh out loud funny in a lot of places. Holofcener looks at middle age with all of it's quirks with a keen eye and a lot of sympathy. Anybody with ageing parents will understand some of the situations in which Beth and Sarah find themselves.
And yes, this is another New York story about upper middle-class Democrats living their best life, but it's a lot more real than other shows which show the glitz of the city. Don and Beth live in t-shirts, Birkenstocks and jeans. I like these people.
My other big draw to this film. Tobias Menzies. You would have seen him on Outlander and Game of Thrones, among other things. He's an English Actor. He's thinking woman's crumpet. File him under he's my type (Tall, rang, soft-spoken, nice hands) I love him in this, very good American accent and all.
If you're after something a little different that will leave you feeling like you've spent your money well, give this a go.
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