MEDIOCREMOVIE.CLUB
  • Reviews
  • Side Pieces
  • Shane of Thrones
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Archives
  • Game of Thrones Fantasy

Enough Said

1/28/2020

0 Comments

 

A

Directed by Nicole Holofcener

Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and James Gandolfini
​
Review by Jon Kissel
Picture

​James Gandolfini, harbinger of the Golden Age of Television and one of the best actors of his generation, died in June 2013, three months before the release of one of his greatest performances in Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said.  I remember sitting down in theaters to watch this film, fresh with more grief than one would expect after the death of someone I’d never been within a hundred miles of, and loving Enough Said, not only for Gandolfini but for Holofcener’s script and the other performances in a hugely-talented cast.  However, how could I not be suspicious of that appraisal, especially when Tony Soprano played such a huge part in my cultural life?  On a years-later revisit, unclouded by grief blinders, my initial reaction was correct.  Enough Said is one of the great underrated films of the last decade, a high-concept farce with vast wells of empathy for its middle-aged characters.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as Eva, a divorced masseuse about to send her teenage daughter Ellen (Tracey Fairaway) off to college.  Eva’s settled into a tolerable routine, withstanding her clients’ irritating routines with professional courtesy and struggling to get closer to her daughter in their waning days together.  Dragged to a party by married friends Sarah (Toni Collette) and Will (Ben Falcone), she meets Gandolfini’s Arthur.  With a repartee that’s in that perfect realm of attainable on one’s best day, they bond over their nearly identical situations, as his daughter Tess (Eve Hewson) is also on her way to college.  At the same party, Eva meets local poet Marianne (Catherine Keener).  They bond over the banality of their respective exes, and Eva enlists Marianne as a new client.  While her relationship with Arthur progresses, so does her friendship with the lonely Marianne.  By the time Eva realizes that Arthur and Marianne were previously married and that she’s been hearing gossip about Arthur’s bad habits from someone who knows him best, she’s in too deep to tell either party.
​
What on its surface is the premise of a half-dozen rejected pilots based on drawn-out misunderstandings transcends hackiness by having a total understanding of who the characters are.  Enough Said starts with complete sculptures and then puts them in silly situations, a vital decision that turns the absurd into the possible.  Holofcener adds fine detail to her characters and the actors enliven their performances with small glances or reactions that speak volumes.  Arthur is far from a stupid man, but he is the kind of guy who can’t remember the name of the Container Store, a brilliant piece of writing that places him exactly in a specific middle-aged milieu.  Eva crochets while she waits for her daughter and her friend to finish shopping, a simple choice for a hobby that immediately puts her in a warm maternal light.  Marianne’s the most difficult sell to this viewer based on her ethereal manner that screams Goop patron, but the way she goes in for an extra hug from Eva speaks to a hunger for honest interaction that puts a twinge of the tragic into this comedy.  These instances happen early and often, making the characters so real and lived-in that Enough Said makes other films worse for not being as perceptive about human behavior.

Around her characters, Holofcener crafts several potent scenarios.  This film isn’t just about the mechanics of the central miscommunication, but about middle-aged romance and friendship, about children leaving home, about indecisiveness and self-improvement, about unrealized wounds one can inflict in the people around you.  Despite all these avenues, the film never feels overstuffed, even at only 93 minutes.  Holofcener finds time for everything, and not in cursory ways.  A version of the film could be made about Ellen, at first happy to get out of the house and then resentful towards a mother who’s directing her pent-up parental energy towards Ellen’s friend.  It could be a pure character study of Albert, a man content to coast through the next decade or two in his happy niche of low-level disarray, a state defined by a lawn with a few too many weeds in it and a body with a few repairs that have been put off.  Enough Said is Linklater-esque in that the world of the film is so rich that it’s a choice and not a necessity that it focuses on who it does.  Eva is a wonderful lead surrounded by compelling supporting players, but she could easily swap out with any of them and the film would remain great.

Though it could easily be about half a dozen people, Enough Said does put Eva up front.  Louis-Dreyfuss has dominated the TV comedy landscape for decades, and Enough Said makes the case that she could’ve done the same for film.  Her Eva is so charming, combining the aforementioned wit with a self-deprecation that puts a toe towards an affecting pathos and a maternal glow that rivals the one that Julianne Moore has been emanating through Still Alice and Wonderstruck.  Opposite her, Gandolfini puts away his Tony Soprano accent and charisma for a nasal and shy man likely close to his actual persona.  Seeing him loosen up around Eva is a revelation, a melting process that the viewer feels along with him, which in turn makes Arthur’s humiliation and betrayal when the film’s conceit inevitably breaks down feel that much more palpable.  Together, Louis-Dreyfuss and Gandolfini are a beautiful couple.  It’s no surprise that she’s a master of timing, but people forget who funny The Sopranos was and Gandolfini keeps pace with his screenmate’s genius.  This is a frequently hilarious film due to their reactions and comebacks, all of which are in the perfect register for who these characters are.

Despite the obvious brilliance and low-key indie success of this film, Holofcener has only directed one more movie and written two more scripts since.  Along with Debra Granik and Lynne Ramsay, she’s yet another female auteur who has an unjustly difficult time getting their work onto screens.  Enough Said is a film that demands more from its creator, as it’s exactly the kind of film that CGI-averse moviegoers say they want but get less and less of.  In the absence of more gems from Holofcener, Enough Said more than suffices as a testament to adult filmmaking and a sweet swan song to one of the greatest actors of my lifetime.  A
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Side Pieces

    Random projects from the MMC Universe. 

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Adventure
    Author - Bryan
    Author - Drew
    Author - Jon
    Author - Phil
    Author - Sean
    Best Of 2016
    Best Of 2017
    Best Of 2018
    Best Of 2019
    Best Of 2020
    Best Of 2021
    Best Of 2022
    Best Of The Decade
    Classics
    Comedy
    Crime
    Documentary
    Drama
    Ebertfest
    Game Of Thrones
    Historical
    Horror
    Musical
    Romance
    Sci Fi
    Thriller
    TV
    Western

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015

    RSS Feed