{"id":28112,"date":"2013-11-09T05:16:47","date_gmt":"2013-11-09T12:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=28112"},"modified":"2013-11-13T22:48:17","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T05:48:17","slug":"enough-said","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=28112","title":{"rendered":"Enough Said"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"James<\/a>
James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Enough Said<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The notion of sorting out life after life after life is a bit of a non-sequitur. I mean, everyday existence, when things work out according to plan, dovetails into a series of social conventions \u2013 marriage, parenthood, career, certainty. But if the security that one takes from these interlocking arrangements fails to last forever \u2013 what happens then?<\/p>\n

Eva, the principal of Nicole Holofcener\u2019s new film Enough Said<\/em> is running the risk of being cut adrift. Middle-aged and divorced, she\u2019s about to become an empty nester when her daughter heads off to college. Everything ought to be good enough, if not ok, but it\u2019s not. Work, as a physical therapist, is filled with niggling discontents; she tramples, unwittingly but effectively, on her daughter Chloe\u2019s sensibilities. Then she\u2019s probably a bit closer to Chloe\u2019s best friend than she ought to be. The pieces that create the picture of emotional security no longer fit together, but she doesn\u2019t quite realise it.<\/p>\n

At a party, Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) meets Marianne (Christine Keener, a long-time Holofcener favourite), a poet who very quickly becomes first a client then a friend; the same evening, she is introduced to Albert (the late, very much missed James Gandolfini). Albert, a television archivist, is also middle-aged and divorced and is also about to become an empty-nester too. He\u2019s cuddly and corpulent and just that little bit loveable, and she finds herself, to her surprise, falling for him. Things might be looking up. Or perhaps not\u2026<\/p>\n

Julia Louis-Dreyfus\u2019s characters has a proud history of inserting themselves forcefully herself into optionally discomfiting situations \u2013 take Seinfeld, for instance, or recent hit Veep. So when she \u2013 and we \u2013 discover that her new BFF and BF are actually ex-husband and wife \u2013 and that neither have particularly kind things to say about one another \u2013 it\u2019s no surprise that she doesn\u2019t do the right thing and declare the conflict of interest to all parties immediately. But Enough Said<\/em> is smarter than this, and doesn\u2019t just take the humour of accidental deception as the end in itself. Rather , it latches the sentiment onto Eva\u2019s existential insecurities and takes the film to some pretty dark places instead.<\/p>\n

Much like Holofcener\u2019s previous films, Enough Said is anchored to the negotiation of social embarrassment. As a writer\/director, Holofecener has explored similar territory often enough \u2013 and competently enough, it should be said \u2013 to prompt the fear of repetition in this film. But Enough Said<\/em> is clever and witty and a rather original film, transcending the strengths \u2013 and limitations \u2013 of rom-com to make astute, at times uncomfortable observations about social embarrassment.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/a>
James Gandolfini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Much rests on the interplay between the principals, so it is good that Gandolfini and Louis-Dreyfus work very well together. Their mutual awkwardness as they stumble into love with one another is propped up effectively by telling individual quirks: Albert is amiable and genial, but with flashes of pain and anger that suggest an unexpectedly sentimental soul, whilst Louis-Dreyfus\u2019s Eva reprises the bright-eyed obtuseness of Seinfeld\u2019s Elaine to excellent effect. Keener, often a luminous and ethereal presence in Holofcener\u2019s films, feels curiously unformed here, but Holofcener casts the narrative net wide enough to sustain interest in the broader picture. Toni Collete and Ben Falcone, friends of Eva with small children and an edgy marriage are a cautionary reminder that life wasn\u2019t greener on the other side.<\/p>\n

Whether it all ends up well in the end is perhaps more a matter of opinion than fact. Personally, I think that the film misses a trick by pulling things together to a tidy conclusion. Life \u2013 and life after life \u2013 is much more untidy that what it would like us to believe. But Enough Said<\/em> is sensible enough and sensitive enough and smart enough to allow it this little wobble at the last.<\/p>\n

Enough Said<\/em> (2013)
\nWritten and Directed by Nicole Holofcener
\nStarring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette
\n93 minutes, English with Hebrew subtitles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The notion of sorting out life after life after life is a bit of a non-sequitur. I mean, everyday existence, when things work out according to plan, dovetails into a series of social conventions \u2013 marriage, parenthood, career, certainty. But if the security that one takes from these interlocking arrangements fails to last forever \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}