Enough Said movie review & film summary (2013)

Of course, Eva wants to have her Albert cake and hang with cool-chick Marianne as well. She and Albert laugh at each other's jokes. He invites her over for brunch even if he is still in his sleeping attire. The sex is good, and she doesn't mind that his pudgy hands look like "paddles."  Unfortunately, the poet's complaints start to affect Eva's feelings about Albert—she calls Marianne "a human TripAdvisor," referring to the online travel review site. And he, being a rather sensitive soul, soon can't help but notice.

We all know what happens when such tangled webs are woven. This one also involves some extraneous strands, including Eva's co-opting of her daughter's best friend as an empty-nest replacement and Toni Collette as Eva's best pal, a therapist who clearly might benefit from getting psychiatric help, given her furniture-rearranging obsession and passive-aggressive relationship with her inept housekeeper.

Even as Gandolfini joins the ranks of unlikely plus-size movie Romeos such as Ernest Borgnine in "Marty" and John Candy in "Only the Lonely," it is interesting to contrast his approach to his character with that of Louis-Dreyfus. The funny lady might have made TV hay as yuppie princess Elaine Benes on "Seinfeld" and, currently, as our nation's second-in-command on the scathing political series "Veep." But she hardly ever was convincing as movie star material. That may be why Louis-Dreyfus only has eight live-action features on her resume, with several of the titles—especially 1994's "North" (of which Roger Ebert once famously wrote, "I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie")—landing squarely in the turkey category. Although Holofcener hones in on her lead's strengths—great reaction shots and terrific comic timing—the actress too often comes off as if she is still trading dating quips with Jerry and George while eating a big salad at Monk's. 

Luckily, this is not the case in her scenes opposite Gandolfini, who allows us to forget the ugly temper and sadistic tendencies of his most famous creation while lending Louis-Dreyfus some of his teddy-bear warmth. Their give-and-take provides some of the movie's best moments. "I'm tired of being funny," she says after engaging in flirty banter. "Me, too," he says, before slyly adding, "But you're not funny."

There is a scene in Holofcener's 2001 film "Lovely & Amazing" where Emily Mortimer stands naked before her new sleazebag lover while he assesses her every physical imperfection, real or not. Similarly, Gandolfini's Albert—if not the actor himself—has had a lifetime of being judged for his excessive girth. As his character says of his upbringing, "I was fed and told not to move." The director was smart enough to take a trait that often caused an actor to be be typecast as a menacing figure and turn it into a strength. If you have to bid farewell to someone this talented, what better way than to finally take advantage of all Gandolfini's wonderfully rough-edged attributes? Enough said, indeed.

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