3.5 stars. Rating: PG-13, for profanity, sexual candor and partial nudity
By Derrick Bang
This is a sweet little dramedy:
the gentle saga of two lonely middle-aged people attempting to establish a
second act with each other. Despite taking full advantage of its
upper-middle-class Los Angeles setting, Nicole Holofcener’s intimate,
conversation-laden film easily could be a stage play, where I suspect it might
have more success finding an audience.
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| Albert (James Gandolfini) really isn't ready for a new relationship; neither is Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Somehow, though, not being ready together begins to work. Alas, an unexpected complication is destined to interfere with their growing bond; the question is whether they can survive the fallout. |
Even during these calmer days of
early autumn, with the bombastic summer behind us, films such as Enough Said struggle for viewers.
That’s a shame. Far too few
movies explore the quiet isolation of late fortysomethings who worry that life
has passed them by: that they’re no longer entitled to the happily-ever-after that
once seemed an essential clause in the contract of adulthood. In that respect,
Holofcener’s film is refreshing merely by its very existence; that it explores
this subject with honesty and candor is a bonus.
Holofcener has based her artistic
career on serio-comic examinations of modern American women in crisis, starting
with 1996’s Walking and Talking, and
continuing with Lovely & Amazing
(2001), Friends with Money (2006) and
Please Give (2010). She clearly has
an artistic rapport with Catherine Keener, who starred in all four of those
films, and also has a strong presence in this new one.
But Keener takes a supporting
role this time; the central character, Eva, is played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a
strong TV presence — most famously in Seinfeld,
currently in Veep — whose big-screen
career has been restricted mostly to voicing characters in animated features. That’s
a shame, because her wry, self-deprecating shtick is an ideal defense mechanism
for her character here.
(That said, a few of
Louis-Dreyfus’ comebacks do sound too much like a stand-up routine; Holofcener
could have reined her in just a little
bit.)
Eva works as a professional
masseuse and has adapted, if reluctantly, to life as a single mother. She
remains on reasonably cordial terms with her ex, and has custody of their
teenage daughter, Ellen (Tracey Fairaway). We meet Eva during the strenuous
routine of an average day, as she schleps her unwieldy portable massage table
from one client to the next, obviously deriving no joy from these regular
encounters with often self-absorbed people.
But it’s a living, and Eva can
take solace from regular contact with best friend Sarah (Toni Collette) and her
husband, Will (Ben Falcone). And we sense that Eva has worked hard to derive
comfort — if not satisfaction — from her workaday schedule. Unfortunately, that
stability is about to be shattered, because Ellen is days away from leaving for
college. Eva, her very soul wrapped up in her daughter’s constant
companionship, is fraying visibly around the edges.
