MOVIE REVIEW – Enough Said

Shane | 30 January 2014 | Reply

MOVIE REVIEW – Enough Said
Directed by Nicole Holofcener
Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone
Reviewed by Trulie Pinnegar
7/10

What can be said about Enough Said? Quite simply, it’s a ‘nice’ film.

Our heroine, Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), is a divorced self-employed masseuse and the film starts by taking us on a whistle stop tour of her regular clients, from the man with bad breath to the woman who never stops talking throughout her therapy session. At a party she attends with her married friends, neurotic psychotherapist Sarah (Toni Collette) and her husband Will (Ben Falcone), she meets 2 people who impact on her life in very different ways…

Marianne (Catherine Keener) is also divorced which is how Eva’s connection to her establishes. Eva is mesmerized by Marianne’s vocation as a poet and her laid back almost hippy like persona. As their friendship develops they share stories of past love lives and ponder if they will ever love again.

Albert (James Gandolfini) is a divorced TV archivist (who ever knew there was such a thing!) who makes Eva laugh despite her wanting to. His gentle nature appeals to her and their relationship grows with a bond being their almost-the-same-age daughters and stories of their marriages. They find it cathartic comparing reasons why they think their marriages ended and take comfort in each other’s situation.

One wonders where the film is going, albeit the story is sweet and heartwarming. However, we see the cringeworthy direction the movie is going to take after Eva hears an answerphone message from Marianne’s ex-husband…who turns out to be Albert. It’s at this stage that we realize how superficial Eva could be – she starts to see fault in Albert the way that Marianne did and faces the dilemma of whether to keep seeing him or end it in favour for her friendship with Marianne.

It’s this dilemma that lets the movie down – the story of a woman who befriends a partner’s former spouse and struggles with how to let the other know she is acquainted to them would have been dilemma enough. But the sweet romance that viewers saw build between Eva and Albert was shattered when we learned she was on the verge of taking another woman’s word on her boyfriend.

I say on the verge as thankfully the story ends as we hoped it would and are left feeling that Eva has learned her lesson.

Despite the negatives, Enough Said is a sweet romantic comedy. Being a ‘nice’ film is a credit to it – it has no hidden agendas or need to wow the audiences with action packed graphics. Just a lovely story and fantastic acting. Enough said.