“Enough Said” – Movie Review

 

As a recently-joined member of The Film Society of Lincoln Center, I was invited to the premiere of “Enough Said”, the new romantic comedy starring the late James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Synopsis

After a woman starts dating a man she met at a party, she soon learns that he is the ex-husband of her new client – but will she let the client’s negativity about him poison the relationship or will she be able to trust her own instincts about him?

Story

After being divorced for nearly a decade, Eva (Louis-Dreyfus) decides to start dating again when she meets Albert (Gandolfini) at a party. Despite the fact that she’s not particularly physically attracted to him, Eva finds Albert to be a decent enough guy who is something of a kindred spirit – in addition to being divorced himself, they both also have college-bound teenage daughters. The more time they spend together, the more they appear to be hitting it off and become quite fond of each other, each helping to fill a void of some kind in the other’s life.

Coincidentally, Eva also met Marianne (Catherine Keener) at the same party. Marianne decides to hire Eva’s services as a masseuse; throughout the course of their sessions, the two women bond while sharing a considerable amount of personal information. As Eva reveals she may be in the early stages of a new relationship, Marianne confesses the enmity she has for her ex-husband. However, as more information is forthcoming, it becomes clear that Albert is actually Marianne’s oft-maligned dreaded loser ex-husband.

Once Eva has put all of the pieces of this puzzle together, she realizes that it is imperative for her to keep this secret from both Albert and Marianne. However, Marianne has developed into more than just a client for Eva – she has become her confidante.  On the other hand, Eva’s relationship with Albert may have all the makings of something that could turn out to be quite serious for them both. But besides whether or not Eva will be able to hide her personal life from the both of them, the greater question is whether or not she will allow Marianne’s criticisms of Albert to determine the future of their relationship?

Review

“Enough Said” is a delightfully funny romantic comedy that tries to explore the complexities of relationships of mature adults. Nicole Holofcener has crafted an extremely clever screenplay and her direction neither distracts from nor obscures its story (although I found the shot selections made during a Skype conversation to be briefly disconcerting, but nothing that seriously harms the scene). Characters – especially Eva, whose story this is – are fully-formed human beings with career challenges and sundry personal crises that interfere with life.

Among this cast of outstanding actors (Keener being my favorite), Louis-Dreyfus shines brightly and shows off her comedic skills to great advantage. After having enjoyed her on TV sitcoms for many years, it was nice to be able to watch her featured in a film. In my opinion, she is the reason to see this movie and as its star, she really carries it. If I were to criticize anything about “Enough Said”, it would be the contrivance of Eva meeting both Albert and Marianne on the same evening at the same party; this is never alluded to until near the end of the motion picture, which was a bit of a dramatic conceit, I felt.

Prior to the screening, an executive from Fox Searchlight brought up the film’s writer/director, Nicole Holofcener, who introduced the cast and bemoaned Gandolfini’s glaring absence, although members of his family were in attendance on that evening. I was a big fan of HBO’s television series “The Sopranos”, so following the screening, I was delighted to find that a number the show’s former cast members were also present; among those I spotted in the audience were Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts), Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior), Aida Turturro (Janice) and Vincent Curatola (Johnny Sack).  

7.1/10123 votes