“I’m tired of being funny.”
Enough Said is one of those movies where you leave the theater accepting the fact that maybe life isn’t meant to be some fairytale that ends in complete and utter happiness, that maybe we’re meant to jump through these awkward hoops and by chance someday we’ll end up meeting the “one” unexpectedly at a party one night.
Directed by Nicole Holofcenter (known for directing some episodes of Parks & Rec and Please Give), Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Eva, a divorced massage therapist with a daughter about to go away to college who has convinced herself she’s not attracted to anyone. That is, until she goes out with her “happily” married friends Sara (Toni Collette) and Will (Ben Falcone) one night to a fancy schmancy party filled with super important artsy fartsy people. Just as Eva gets done telling the two there’s not one man at the party she’s interested in, along comes Albert (James Gandolfini)—the unsuspected charmer, who also isn’t attracted to anyone at the party (do you see where this is going?).
But it’s not all so simple, as it usually goes living divorced and single in Los Angeles. While mingling around the party Eva also meets a poet (yes, it’s possible to make a living as a poet still) Marianne (Catherine Keener), and the two hit it off right away. In fact, she swoops her up as a new client and the two are suddenly best friends drinking iced teas while talking about their exes. Like: how Marianne’s ex used to do this annoying thing where he’d separate the onions in guacamole and swirl it around with a chip and EW! Right? Exes doing horrible, horrible things—how he was overweight, and didn’t really perform in the sac.—blah, blah, blah.
All of this projecting from Marianne has Eva questioning the beginning of her new thing with Albert, who’s strikingly similar to the man she keeps talking about. So already by date #2 Eva’s overbearingly judgmental of the little stuff to the point where Albert’s turned off and annoyed by her—claiming he just basically ,”spent the evening with his ex.” The story enfolds into an unexpected series of coincidences that ultimately leave Eva sneaking around, overanalyzing everything about her and Albert’s relationship—too much nitpicking to even allow herself to enjoy the simple fact they just so happened to actually like each other.
Dreyfus and Gandolfini are hilariously awkward to watch in Enough Said; this movie is fresh and never once did the humor feel stale or “done before”, as a lot of independent films often feel at times. You will love/hate Eva’s tendencies to unintentionally ruin everything, but damn does she play the part well.
(photo via Art Info)
