'Tiny Beautiful Things' review: Kathryn Hahn brings 'Dear Sugar …

MashableUpdated April 6, 2023, 10:03 AMA woman in a blue button-down shirt stands in the door to a bedroom, her mouth open in shock.A woman in a blue button-down shirt stands in the door to a bedroom, her mouth open in shock.

Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things lives up to its title, revealing beauty in everything from a purple balloon on a bus to glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to a bedroom ceiling. But by far the most beautiful thing about the series is Kathryn Hahn’s leading performance, which delivers a touching look at how we work through life’s messes, big and small. Hahn plays Clare Pierce, a woman whose life is mere inches away from rock bottom.

Her husband, Danny (Quentin Plair), and daughter, Rae (Tanzyn Crawford), have kicked her out and want nothing to do with her, and she’s on thin ice at her retirement home job. She also continues to grieve the loss of her mother, Frankie (Merritt Wever), who passed away during Clare’s senior year of college. (In flashbacks, Sarah Pidgeon plays young Clare.) A chance to improve her circumstances comes from the most unexpected of places: advice column “Dear Sugar.” No, Clare doesn’t receive any life-changing advice from Sugar.

She actually takes over writing the column for an old friend. Turns out that listening and responding to other people’s own struggles may be just what Clare needs to begin to heal. SEE ALSO: ‘Up Here’ review: A sweet musical series from the minds behind ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Frozen’

Tiny Beautiful Things adapts Cheryl Strayed’s book of essays of the same name.

A woman holds her daughter's chin while the two sit in a car. A woman holds her daughter’s chin while the two sit in a car.

Kathryn Hahn and Tanzyn Crawford in “Tiny Beautiful Things.” Credit: Jassica Brooks / Hulu

You may know author Cheryl Strayed from her memoir Wild, about her experience hiking the Pacific Coast Trail. She also wrote the advice column “Dear Sugar” for online literary magazine The Rumpus from 2010 to 2012. Her “Dear Sugar” essays were then published as a book, upon which Tiny Beautiful Things is based — somewhat.

Tiny Beautiful Things doesn’t attempt to adapt the essays themselves. Instead, the show weaves its material through a fictionalized version of Strayed’s life. Some elements of Clare’s experience line up with Strayed’s, such as her rural upbringing and the death of her mother.

However, the show in no way functions as a biography of Strayed. As Sugar, Clare receives letters asking how to handle marital problems, sharing worries about children, and more — all of which are issues plaguing Clare herself. The role of Sugar allows Clare to work through her own experiences and empathize with others, a process which Tiny Beautiful Things externalizes through copious voiceovers of the letters to Sugar as well as Clare’s responses.

These are lifted almost word for word from the original “Dear Sugar” columns, so each episode offers a new dose of deeply personal, moving writing. There are times when the voiceovers veer into overly sweet, conventional life-advice territory, while dialogue throughout tends occasionally toward the melodramatic. However, Tiny Beautiful Things course corrects with some devastatingly funny moments, including a rant about Chick-fil-A courtesy of Clare and a later send-up of writing retreats.

Kathryn Hahn and Merritt Wever shine in Tiny Beautiful Things.

A woman in a bathrobe and her daughter in pajamas celebrate in a living room decorated with Christmas lights. A woman in a bathrobe and her daughter in pajamas celebrate in a living room decorated with Christmas lights.

Merritt Wever and Sarah Pidgeon in “Tiny Beautiful Things.” Credit: Elizabeth Morris / Hulu

Tiny Beautiful Things‘ combination of humor and poignancy would not be possible without Hahn at the helm. She plays the messiness of Clare’s life with staggering clarity, making her an open book we can’t tear our eyes from — even when she’s doing something that makes us cringe, like an ill-advised hookup or a sweaty breakdown in front of her daughter’s friend. Pidgeon does great work as young Clare, too, with a performance that mirrors Hahn’s and sets up the major emotional connection between Clare and her mother.

As Frankie, Wever is the picture of kindness and patience — almost to the point of being too idealized, in some episodes. Still, some of the show’s most tragic moments occur in flickers of emotion across her face, such as when Clare doesn’t like a coat Frankie bought her for Christmas. In the present, moments like these tear Clare apart, reflecting in her scenes with Rae.

It’s clear she doesn’t want her daughter to repeat her mistakes, but given their strained relationship, how can Clare make amends? Mother-daughter relationships, those between Frankie, Clare, and Rae, make for the heart of Tiny Beautiful Things. Episodes often draw parallels between these pairings through flashbacks.

These flashbacks can sometimes be frustrating, as we don’t always get a firm idea of where in the past we are. However, given Tiny Beautiful Things‘ focus on recollection, this lack of a temporal anchor makes sense. Memory isn’t linear: It’s messy and heartbreaking, but it can also be cathartic. “Dear Sugar” gives Clare some much-needed catharsis, and by its conclusion, Tiny Beautiful Things, with its own dogged exploration of grief and love, ends up achieving a similar effect.

All episodes of Tiny Beautiful Things are streaming on Hulu Apr.

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Originally published April 6, 2023, 10:00 AM

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