Movie Review: "Enough Said"

"Enough Said": B+.  Momma Cuandito and I went over to the Pig & Fiddle on 50th & France Wednesday afternoon to dissect the movie we'd just seen, Enough Said, at the Edina Theater.  As we were enjoying the tasty Brother Thelonious from California's North Coast Brewing, a brilliant (Brilliant!) thought came to me. When you see a science fiction movie, it is highly doubtful that the script writer is writing from personal experience.  Unless she has been on a rocket ship or has fought aliens, the script is mostly the product of the writer's imagination (not that that's a bad thing).  The same can be said for cowboy movies, psychological thrillers, horror movies, most war movies, most detective movies, etc. The characters in those films probably do not resemble or reflect the writer's own life's experiences.  However, in a movie such as Enough Said, which is about a middle aged couple, Albert (James Gandolfini) and Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who are divorced from other people but hoping to make a go of it, the events which occur are not that extraordinary -- in fact, most are ordinary.  As I suspected after doing a little post-viewing research, writer-director Nicole Holofcener herself was married for ten years and now has been divorced for another ten.  The script reflects the strong likelihood that she was not relying solely on her imagination.  She is familiar with the terrain.  This is the very kind of movie I most enjoy: a small scale film involving everyday people who are put in interesting situations.

The other huge attribute which the movie has going for it is that Albert is probably my favorite character of all the movies I've seen this year.  If ever a man was comfortable in his own skin, without the need to pretend he's something he's not, it is Albert.  Expertly played by Gandolfini in his final role before he unexpectedly died five months ago, Albert is not a slob, but he does not put organization or neatness at the top of his priority list.  Last year's fashions are just fine; so are last decade's.  If something breaks he is more apt to do without than to get it fixed or replaced.  He likes the opposite sex -- he's even cordial to his ex -- but he is not a chaser.  He is comfortable in his pajamas at mid-day, so why bother changing?  His  eighteen year old daughter is the most important thing in his life, but on those occasions when she chooses to be with her mother, Albert rolls with it.  He is an extremely likable guy with many admirable qualities. Of course, if you're looking for faults, those are easy to find too.

 

The story line is a familiar one in the sense that it involves one of the two main characters knowing something that the other does not, and a sequence of events which determines if, when and how the second person will find out.  This movie reminded me a little bit of You've Got Mail, in which Tom Hanks' character secretly corresponds via e-mail with a business rival, played by Meg Ryan.  He knows who she is, but she does not realize her "pen pal" is Hanks.  In Enough Said, Eva figures out that the guy she has started to date, Albert, is the ex of her new friend, Marianne (Catherine Keener).  She tries to keep that nugget of info a secret from both Albert and Marianne.  Eva may be looking for exactly the right time to fess up, but once she's waited beyond a reasonable period, all the while getting Marianne's negative takes on her ill-fated marriage to Albert, she is in a pickle from which there seems to be no escape.

 

Louis-Dreyfus does a commendable job as Eve.  The roll calls for a lot of comedy, such as her interactions with some of the clients who hire her as a masseuse, and with her teenage daughter and her daughter's friends.  Her scenes with Gandolfini, which are the best in the film, contain an excellent mixture of comedy and seriousness.  The viewer is quickly immersed in their relationship, and the fact that these are two actors we're watching never enters the consciousness.  The dialogue is witty, charming and sometimes sorrowful. Most of all, as we progress from scene to scene, it is real.  Director Holofcener, who is more well known for her work in television, knows how to keep a story moving.  At almost every turn, just when I thought a scene should end, it did.

 

I highly recommend this film.  I could not give it a grade higher than B+ due to my being unable to buy into the thought process of Eve once she has met Albert and Marianne's daughter, Tess (played by the very pretty Eve Hewson, an Irish lass who is the daughter of U2 singer Bono).  Surely Eve should have changed her modus operandi at that point and come clean to Tess' parents.  Instead, the deception continues.  But if my grading system allowed for a mark between B+ and A-, that's where I'd rate it.