For Your Consideration: Enough Said

Enough Said is a romantic comedy that centers on some very normal, everyday, middle-aged people coping with things like divorce and the fast approaching empty-nest syndrome.  Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as Eva, a massage therapist who has adjusted to being divorced, but a bit uneasy about her only daughter going off to college. The late James Gandolfini is Albert, who hasn’t adjusted so well to his divorce. He holds a lot of anger toward his ex-wife, but has a close relationship with his only daughter, who is also going off to college.  You get the impression that neither Eva or Albert are looking for a significant other and life goes on, as it does for most everyday people.

Eva and Albert meet each other at a party.  Eva is at the party in hopes of gaining some new clients when she meets Marianne (Catherine Keener), a poet who Eva feels a strong connection with almost immediately. Marianne books Eva for a massage at her house and the two become fast friends.  As this friendship is developing Eva and Albert are going on a few dates and a romance develops, but in life nothing is just that simple. The ex-husband that Marianne has said many awful things about turns out to be Albert, and this puts Eva in a very strange place. She has a new best friend, who she really likes, and this amazing man she loves being around, thus things get complicated.

Enough Said could have been a cheesy rom-com, if the casting wasn’t done so well. Gandolfini and Louis-Dreyfus have great chemistry, and they carry this otherwise mundane plot to a very enjoyable height.  Eva and Albert seem like people we know and for that reason we stay connected.

Rating – 3.5 stars