Valentine Marathon: Enough Said (2013)

Finally, we’re back with the next Valentine Marathon review! I’m falling behind with my originally planned schedule.  It was a little ambitious to say the very least but thats okay.  I’m still choosing romance/rom-com choices that I’ve been really wanting to check out.  Its a little weird that this year’s list is full of a lot of pretty seemingly sophisticated choices and with a lot of actors and actresses that I’m pretty unfamiliar with.  Thats exactly where my next choice, Enough Said, falls.  I didn’t have cable when I was younger so The Sopranos never exactly caught on for me and well, even if I did have cable, most likely my parents wouldn’t let me watch it.  Still, I’ve seen James Gandolfini in a few movies before this one, never romance though. Honestly, I’m a little intrigued by how he would do. Plus, this is about divorced middle-aged so I’m not exactly the target audience either.  Regardless, I’m not too picky so here we go!

ENOUGH SAID (2013)

Director & Writer: Nicole Holofcener

Cast: Julie Louis-Dreyfuss, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Tracey Fairaway, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone

Eva (Julie Louis-Dreyfuss) is a divorced masseuse living with her daughter (Tracey Faraway) who is about to leave for college.  While she struggles to find another man that interests her, she finds it in another divorced individual, Albert (James Gandolfini). Albert brings her lots of happiness and they quickly embark into a relationship however much to her surprise, she realizes that her new client and becoming best friend, Marianne (Catherine Keener) turns out to be Albert’s ex-wife.

Enough Said breaks out from the romantic comedy to be a sophisticated and charming one.  Most more middle-aged ones feature a lot of falling back into love with your divorced half or whatnot and just having silly situations and whatnot.  This one is different.  Enough Said is very grown up but also extremely fun to watch because our characters Eva and Albert are absolutely lovable.  They are humorous naturally with just the way they say things and having the respect of each other and their situations.  Enough Said brings a maturity to a genre that really hasn’t been really excelling in that and it mostly have to do with how they bring forth some more serious issues but use such charming and well-written characters.

Enough Said has a lot to thank for the fine acting and irresistible chemistry between Julie Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini playing Eva and Albert respectively.  Their characters radiate with this sweet romance of falling in love a second time and finding this happiness and joy that they didn’t when both their marriages ended.  Both are in similar life situations and they understand and need similar things to each other.  It also hits the second thing that in a second relationship there are other issues that they need to deal with and it has a lot to do with being able to let yourself become vulnerable again in this love.  As much as the amusing part is seeing Eva and Albert’s love grow, there’s also the issue of how her opinions could be influenced because of her own insecurities. This is where the character of Marianne becomes slightly crucial to this story because she becomes that person that you know is offering a skewed third person’s opinion that starts making you question your own beliefs and its knowing when to put a stop to this, which Eva doesn’t do and finds excuses to keep her friendship with Marianne regardless of how it could potentially hurt this great relationship that she’s in, turning this love story somewhat bittersweet in its own way.

I really have no words to describe how great Enough Said is.  It really took me by surprise mostly because I didn’t really know what to expect.  I didn’t expect to connect with it as well as I did.  Just goes to say that love is universal and it really doesn’t have an age limit.  The key is that to get back into anything, you need to have the courage to stand up for what you believe and who you believe in.  There was a conversation about protecting relationships and ourselves that I really loved among many things.  Plus, there was the backdrop with Eva and her daughter’s relationship and that was a pretty well done as well. Its a great story with well written characters that carries a ton of charm and chuckles.  I totally recommend it 🙂

Have you seen Enough Said? What are your thoughts on it?