On-screen chemistry will grab audience’s attention
93 minutes (M)
Nicole Holofcener ( Friends with Money)
James Gandolfini, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Eve Hewson Catherine Keener
Leigh Paatsch
½ ALL rom- coms great and small — and the ones that star Katherine Heigl — are guilty of wearing their hearts out on their sleeve. Nothing wrong with that. Comes with the territory.
However, too few are prepared to carry on as if they have an actual head on their shoulders. Playing dumb is playing safe.
Therefore a rom-com like Enough Said — one that be can be both clever and cute, yet never cloying — deserves to be looked at , laughed along with, and loved.
Compounding the connection for lovers of fine acting is the sad fact Enough Said marks one of the final screen performances of the late, great James Gandolfini.
He plays Albert, a burly divorcee in his early 50s who has all but opted out of playing the dating game.
That is until he meets Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), also divorced, at a pool party. Though the pair have little in common lifestyle-wise — Albert has let himself go, which is no selling point for Eva, a trim masseuse — there is an instant and real rapport.
Writer- director Nicole Holofcener, a skilled practitioner when it comes to depicting modern relationships, does a wonderful job of calibrating the mutual attraction that gradually builds between Albert and Eva. Just as they are getting to know each other (initially bonding over a shared hatred of loud music in eating establishments), so too is the audience.
Both characters have their flaws, which are cleverly flagged by Holofcener across their first few dates (easily the standout scenes of Enough Said). More importantly, however, there are feelings there. Gandolfini and Louis- Dreyfus quietly amplify them with rare honesty.
There are stretches that test the patience. When Eva meets Marianne (Catherine Keener), a woman with deep intel on Albert’s life, the film gets a little conventionally cosy. Nevertheless, Holofcener has enough in reserve to keep Enough Said on the right side of our affections.