Write Music that Directs Not Reflects

I'm currently scoring a short film that has been an enlightening experience. I imagine this is part of every film composer's development, and something I've usually subconsciously been doing for quite a while now, but this is the first time I've really formulated the idea into words.To loosely summarize the scene in question: the main character has just received some surprising bad news and a woman is trying to make him feel like it's not so bad. My approach to the score was "this is sad, but it's going to be OK." For the most part, I was focusing on the woman's reassuring tone and outlook.What I failed to pay attention to was the main character's feelings. He was just hit hard with some bad news and as far as he's concerned, everything is very much not OK! The director pointed out to me that the music really needs to be about what he's going through, that he doesn't really believe her reassurance, that he thinks what she is saying is empty.

"If I think 'this is sad' and then write a cue that only says 'this is sad', haven't I really just added noise to the scene?"

I came to realize that what was happening here is that I was writing music that was mirroring my reaction, as opposed to writing music that would drive the audience's emotion in a certain direction. As an observer looking in on the conversation, I was reflecting on what I saw. But this is kind of useless, isn't it?The audience watching the scene without music would likely have the same reaction that I would as well. If I think "this is sad" and then write a cue that only says "this is sad", haven't I really just added noise to the scene? What I really needed to do was decide on not what I was feeling, but on what I wanted the audience to feel.