Reviews

Enough Said

I know. I know.  If you’re anything like me, you’re asking yourself, “where can I see two 5s in action?” I mean, other than folding at the poker table, of course. Why, in Hollywood on the “big” screen! Noooooo. Yes! Check it out, a romance that makes youngsters gag …in which “cute” is stretched beyond NASA proportions … a romance with more qualifiers (“she’s ok for a ___________”) than the entry rounds for the Special Olympics.

Ah, I kid. I kid because I love …? No. Find attractive …? No. Respect …? Yes, that’s it. I respect James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. They can still entertain me.

Enough Said is a tale of divorcee Eva (Louis-Dreyfus), fighting her way through middle age and a child going off to college. Eva is a masseuse. She’s not wild about her job, but that’s kinda hard to tell – I mean, when I think about it, Julia Louis-Dreyfus doesn’t seem wild about anything. Eva and Albert (Gandolfini) meet at a party while voicing a mutual lack of attraction. So he asks her out. Don’t you love coy fogies? Huh, I think I had a Coy Fogies LP back in the day.

At the very same party, Eva meets Marianne (Catherine Keener). Marianne is well-to-do poet (WTF?!) with shoulder issues. She enlists Eva’s professional services and the two become fast friends. Meanwhile, Eva is also becoming benefit-enriched friends with Albert. And then Eva discovers that her two new best friends used to married to one another. And neither is particularly happy with that memory. See over there, you got Scylla … and that one o’er there? She’s named “Charybdis.” You know what? That EnoughSaid2should have been the actual names of Albert and Marianne, huh? Could have called them “Celia” and “Cary,” it would have been very.

James Gandolfini is currently on his Tupac tour and I’m glad to say his posthumous work is still quality. He and Julia here are, indeed, cute. No, I won’t qualify that. Cute, that is, until she finds herself swayed by Marianne’s ex talk. At that point, I’m sure your teen will overjoyed to have been dragged along. This ain’t a film for the young; veterans of marriage might find it hits a bit close as well. Enough Said is filled with those moments that on their face mean nothing (wearing sweats to greet a visitor at the door, being picky with food, etc.), yet long-married people will recognize as the things that drive you up the goddamn wall.

Eva’s friend Sarah (Toni Collette) is in one-of-those can’t-wait-to-be-divorced relationships where she and husband Will (Ben Falcone) spend together-time sniping at one another. These characters exist basically for the ambiance of middle age divorce – as if to say even those who are married aren’t exactly overjoyed with their lives – Enough Said is a fairly cynical film. I only bring this subplot up because Sarah’s jabs attack Will being a middle child. I’ve never heard a character obsessed with attacking middle child syndrome. I mean, why would you bother? As soon as someone discovers a reason to be envious of us, I’m sure we’ll see more of this behavior. I’m not holding my breath.

Caught in the act of lying
Eva, there’s no use in crying
Tears are a curse
But hey, could be worse
For instance, Al could be dying

Rated PG-13, 93 Minutes
D: Nicole Holofcener
W: Nicole Holofcener
Genre: Broken romance
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Midlife crisis dwellers
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: People who expect to wear 3D glasses when coming to theaters

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