It's been a long time since I can say that I've thoroughly enjoyed a romantic comedy as much as I enjoyed Enough Said. James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus light up this movie with a solid, romantic chemistry and a romantic comedy that feels mature an adult rather than getting lost in the typical cliches and tropes you find in a lot of other romantic comedies.
Enough Said is the story Eva (Louis-Dreyfus) who, while attending a party with her married friends Will (Ben Falcone) and Sarah (Toni Collette) meets a self-described poet, Marianne (Catherine Keener) and gets introduced to Will's friends Jason (Phillip Brock) and Albert (James Gandolfini.) After the party, Albert calls Eva and asks her out on a date, while separately, Marianne becomes a client of Eva (who is a masseuse)- the two eventually become friends.
After meeting Albert's teenage daughter, Tess, for lunch one day, Eva sees a picture of Marianne's daughter and realizes that Marianne is Albert's ex-wife-- a fact that she keeps secret from both Albert and Marianne- though gradually, she lets Marianne's perceptions of Albert alter and fray their relationship somewhat- but she still doesn't fess up to Albert. However, when Tess arrives at Marianne's house one day, the game is soon up: Albert confronts Eva, who admits that she had realized that Marianne was his ex-wife quite some time ago, but hadn't told him. Albert tells Eva that he would have been happier if she had been honest and the two of them break up.
Some time passes and Eva sends her daughter off to college at Sarah Lawrence and some months later, when she is due to arrive back for Thanksgiving, she drives by Albert's house, to find him there. The two admit that they still drive past each other's houses on occasion and begin to renew their relationship.
Where to begin with this gem of a movie? Oh, I know: the stars. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini (in one of his last roles- with the passing of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, I almost forgot that we lost another talented actor, late last year in Gandolfini- whose range and abilities go far beyond and in fact, transcend his most famous role, Tony Soprano.) These two have such an easy, perfect chemistry and are utterly believable. They bounce off of each other, they seem fascinated by each other- they bond over shared battle scars as both are divorcees pushing into their 50s and both have teenage daughters.
Then there's the script- director Nicole Holofcenter delivers an unusual romantic comedy in that it feels real and believable in ways that many others (i.e. How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days and it's ilk) don't. There's a sense of the genuine that pervades this movie that I enjoy immensely: the interplay of all the characters and the sweet, gentle nature of the budding romance between the leads- I had a smile on my face pretty much the whole way through and in these days where Nicholas Sparks movies pass for romance, it's nice to find a movie that's just so, adult about everything.
If I do have one tiny quibble with this movie, it's that Eva waits so long to tell Albert. I suppose in that respect, while refreshing, Enough Said has to embrace one tiny part of romantic comedy trope-hood in that there's always got to be drama somewhere along the line. It's incredibly frustrating as a viewer though: you see these two, you see how good they are together and yet Eva can't figure out why anyone would want to divorce Albert, and when she figures out who Marianne is and starts pumping her for information, it becomes akin to a loose tooth or a scab she just can't stop picking at- so although there's a happy ending, you just wish she would have left it alone and just been happy- but in the end, she figures it out I guess. Overall: **** out of **** Don't know if this is Gandolfini's last role or not, but if it is, it's one hell of a swan song. (I think it probably is, but he might have one last role in a movie still coming out. Can't find out one way or the other.)
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