Enough Said (2013)

Film: Enough Said (2013)

Stars: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone

Director: Nicole Holofcener

Oscar History: Gandolfini got in with the SAG Awards and Julia got in with the Golden Globes, but nothing for Oscar.

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

We tend to relate best to films that we can find common ground with, and I wasn’t sure I would get there with Enough Said, to be honest.  The previews showed what appeared to be an interesting premise-a woman discovers she’s dating the ex-husband of her new friend, but I was concerned about how long this could be sustained.  Would it be a madcap, goofy film with her having to eventually, awkwardly choose love?  Would we have an affable central character full of quirks and charms?  Essentially, I was worried I was headed into a high-brow Katherine Heigl rom-com, that because they hired non-traditional stars for the lead roles could somehow play in an art house.

I was quite wrong and oddly moved by this very tiny picture that shows the journey really of one woman through what will be the next and possibly last phase of her life.  Eva (Louis-Dreyfus) is a woman who has sorted out largely where she wants her life to go.  Divorced for a number of years, she’s successful enough in her career as a masseuse to make a living, and raises a daughter who is bound for college.

The film doesn’t just focus on her empty nest syndrome, though, and doesn’t define her as it.  This is a woman who does have a couple of close friends (namely Sarah, played by Collette, and her awkward husband Will, played by Falcone), and who starts dating a man she meets at a party named Albert (Gandolfini).

The film’s central premise on paper is regarding Eva and Albert’s relationship, and how Eva is dating Albert while becoming friends with his ex-wife Marianne (Keener).  This does occasionally veer into clichéd romantic comedy territory, and were it the focus of the film we wouldn’t be discussing it here.  But Holofcener, who is no stranger to taking the road less travelled in her pictures, shifts the focus to the uncomfortably lonely aspects of Eva’s life.

This spoke the most to me, as I, while not the same age as Eva, am also single in a land of married people and am single past the age where you are supposed to be.  There are multiple scenes where Eva hangs out with her daughter’s best friend and gives her some shaky (girlfriend-like) advice.  This is played for laughs in the movie, but there’s so much truth to it.  Eva is successful in her professional life, but her personal life is a bit of a mess, and not just because she’s single-her only true friend is Sarah, and the conundrum of choosing between Albert and Marianne takes on an unspoken urgency: would I rather have a romantic partner or a friend?  Which of these relationships is going to last longer and fill my life for the better?

It’s a question many single people ask themselves as they get older.  We frequently pretend that our friends are our family in our twenties, but as time moves on, friends develop traditional nuclear families and we learn that life doesn’t look like Friends or Will and Grace-it looks like Everybody Loves Raymond (can you name any of Ray or Debra’s actual friends, and stating “Kevin James” doesn’t count?).  For Eva, who has had her daughter to anchor her reason-fo-being for so many years, she has a wide gap of purpose and personal life that’s desperately in need of filling, and there’s a genuine question whether another good friend or a husband would better fill that void.

Holofcener chooses the traditional route, of course (can you imagine if she’d chosen the relationship with Marianne instead?!?), but she lingers long enough to instill her message in the minds of the audience.  The movie falters when she stays too far away from Eva’s loneliness (her neuroticisms aren’t nearly as important, though they do show the oft-repeated adage of how it’s harder to date when you’ve established your single behaviors), and for that reason I’m a bit surprised that Gandolfini is getting the same amount of praise (or even more of it) than Louis-Dreyfus’s layered work.  Gandolfini delivers what he needs to, but doesn’t find as much below the surface, and it’s hard not to feel that the overwhelming amount of support for his Supporting Actor bid is being pushed due to his untimely demise.

This film is nearly out of theaters, so I’m guessing if you were planning on seeing it you have, which means there’s probably some discussion here-did you enjoy Enough Said?  Did you see the same film about the power of loneliness that I did (or am I projecting and should talk to my therapist about this review)?  And will Gandolfini or Louis-Dreyfus be amongst the lucky contenders at the Oscars this year?  Share in the comments!