The 2023 drama movie You Hurt My Feelings is a heartwarming take on marriage and the ability of those who love each other to remain supportive throughout the years. You Hurt My Feelings‘ cast is led by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies as Beth and Don, a loving married couple. While the two seem perfect for each other, Beth’s faith in her husband is shaken when she accidentally overhears him telling her sister’s husband that he does not like her new book.
Due to the cast’s great performances, You Hurt My Feelings has received positive reviews and currently holds a 94% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. You Hurt My Feelings is certainly one of the best movies available on Netflix right now. The story feels both specific to these characters, yet also relatable to concerns that many people have about their relationships and careers. While Beth, Don, and their friends all go through their own trials, You Hurt My Feelings ultimately gives its characters a happy ending, creating a very lovable and easy watch.
How Beth & Don Reconcile Their Marriage In You Hurt My Feelings
The Two Eventually Talk Through Their Problems
While Beth struggles to talk to Don about what she overheard him say for most of the movie, by You Hurt My Feelings‘ ending, she comes clean about how the comments affected her. In an awkward dinner scene with Beth’s sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins) and her husband Mark (Arian Moayed), Beth finally reveals that the reason she has been so angry with Don is that he lied about liking her book. Don says that she took things out of context but eventually admits that he had lied to her simply to avoid hurting her feelings because he loves her so much.
Beth and Don both recognize that these moments are very small in the grand scheme of their relationship and ultimately do not detract from how much they love each other.
Things are still frosty between the two for a while, but they eventually reconcile because each comes to realize that they have told little white lies in the past to avoid hurting their partner’s feelings. Beth and Don both recognize that these moments are very small in the grand scheme of their relationship and ultimately do not detract from how much they love each other. Both Beth and Don, along with Sarah and Mark, maintain their focus on doing the things they love with the people they love and become stronger after discussing things honestly.
Does Beth Really Think Don Will Look Great After Eye Surgery?
Beth Seems More Unsure Than She Lets On
After Beth and Don reconcile, Don discusses his discomfort with aging and his desire to have cosmetic eye surgery, leading Beth to tell him that he should go for whatever will make him feel best. In the final moments of the film, the results of Don’s eye surgery are revealed, and despite the bruising, which he knows will heal, Don seems happy with the results. When he asks Beth what she thinks about his new appearance, she happily tells him that he looks great, but there may be more to her reaction than she lets on.
One of the biggest themes of You Hurt My Feelings is its discussion of honesty within relationships and finding the balance between said honesty and a desire to shield one’s partner from pain. As Beth and Don hug after he reveals the results of his eye surgery, Beth grimaces while he cannot see her. Though she seems happy for him, and likely is truly happy that he feels more confident, her private reaction indicates that she is unsure of whether Don will look good after the bruising and swelling heals.
The Success Of Beth’s Book Explained
Beth’s New Agent Was Much More Supportive
Early in the film, Beth meets with her agent about her new novel, and the agent gives her a lot of negative feedback, prompting Beth to doubt whether her agent is the best fit for her. When she learns that her husband also dislikes the book, Beth’s confidence is drained. However, with renewed support from her husband, Beth successfully finds a new agent who is more supportive of her novel and excited about getting it published. One year later, Beth walks by a bookstore that features her book in the window display, proving that she made the right choice.
Any feedback that Don would have given, or that Beth’s agents gave her, is at least partially based on their own opinions, making it impossible to objectively judge whether her book is good.
The success of Beth’s new book is also important in exploring You Hurt My Feelings‘ repeated discussion of subjectivity. Part of the reason that Don did not want to tell Beth that he disliked her book was that he felt he did not have the authority to distinguish what makes a book good or bad. Any feedback that Don would have given, or that Beth’s agents gave her, is at least partially based on their own opinions, making it impossible to objectively judge whether her book is good. Thus, her book’s success really relied on her finally finding an agent who was able to see her vision.
You Hurt My Feelings’ Ending Gives Every Character What They Want
All The Main Characters Eventually Find Happiness
Despite the struggles and questions that the characters grapple with throughout You Hurt My Feelings, in the end, they all get what they want. One of the biggest issues that the characters in You Hurt My Feelings face is insecurity about their careers and uneasiness about whether they are really in the right profession. Beth feels this when learning Don does not like her book. Don experiences doubt when his patients tell him his therapy has not helped. Sarah struggles with interior design when a client does not like the lamp she picked out, and Mark gets fired from an acting job.
Though all of them begin to spiral at certain points, by the end of the movie, they have each made a lot of positive progress in their careers. Beyond this insecurity, they have also reaffirmed the strength of their relationships and their love for each other. Likewise, Beth and Don’s son, Eliot (Owen Teague), feels better about his relationship with his parents and is confident in showing them a draft of the screenplay he has written. Though the characters know that their lives are not perfect, You Hurt My Feelings ends on a wholesome note that makes it clear how they have all grown.
You Hurt My Feelings’ Real Meaning
The Movie Serves As A Reflection On Love And Honesty In Relationships
You Hurt My Feelings’s narrative is pretty straightforward, but it still manages to include a lot of nuance in its depiction of different relationships and the somewhat trivial problems that many people have. Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Beth even reflects on the situation by stating that though she may sound narcissistic, her feelings are at the center of her world and influential in how she perceives herself and others. Because the film is quite self-aware, You Hurt My Feelings remains funny and light in its acknowledgment of how small problems can become big in one’s mind.
The biggest takeaway from the movie is that love can drive people to do small things that would hurt each other if they knew but that those small problems would not break a truly happy relationship. You Hurt My Feelings uses its cast’s great comedic and dramatic performances to show how honesty can have unintended consequences, but that it is important nonetheless. Ultimately, love can manifest in a lot of different ways, and You Hurt My Feelings ends on the note that love can surpᴀss challenges when people are willing to work through them.
