'At some point your have to make a decision. Are you going to be alone, or are you going to be with somebody else? Are you going to be sane, or not lonely.'
That's a joke from standup comic Dylan Moran. Nothing's funny if it's not at least a bit true, and Enough Said is one of those intelligent but depressing comedies about midlife interpersonal blues that demonstrates the truth of the joke.
I hated Seinfeld. I loved The Sopranos. Ergo, I'm more into this movie for James Gandolfini than for Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Not that I watch Enough Said expecting to be unsympathetic towards her character, Eva, but that's what the character and the plot does to me. Maybe women watch this movie, think Eva, her patronising friend Sarah (Toni Collette) and Eva's overbearing massage client/friend Marianne (Catherine Keener) are the tops. Me, nope. I think Gandolfini's Albert (Eva's new boyfriend, and as it turns out, Marianne's ex-husband), Sarah's tolerant husband Will (Ben Falcone) and Eva's ex- Peter (Toby Huss) are all likeable, reasonable people. The women are all snippy, bitchy, petty, catty, and let's be honest, dishonest. Or, at least, Eva is.
Eva is a masseuse with a daughter bound for college. Albert is a librarian who likewise has a daughter bound for college. Oops, Albert's daughter is also Marianne's. When Eva realises that her new friend/client is her boyfriend's ex- she keeps shtum, encourages Marianne (who is exhausting) to vent about Albert, and then allows herself to be influenced. She doesn't tell Marianne or Albert that she knows the other one.
Is it heading for Heartbreak Hotel? Can't say. Not sure there are any hearts beating in this movie. Actually, Eva's daughter and her bestie are more likeable than the mums and dads, so one starts wishing one could escape to college with them. It is a bit weird that Eva spends so much time with her daughter's friend, and that in the group dinner scene, a bit before the hour mark, Eva is not there with Albert, but with her daughter's friend instead. Surely she would want her ex- to see her with her new man? The friend also meets him before Eva's daughter does. Is Eva being cautious or is she just determined to sabotage her relationships?
I guess the movie is truthful about the ways people curate their memories of past relationships to make themselves come out brighter, halo for me, horns for the ex-. It's probably also the case that this is a movie intended for couples, or maybe just women, so it can be discussed at length afterwards. As a guy watching it, well, as well written and funny as it is, it's also just a bit too blah, a bit too meh, and very much lacking in something magical, or dramatic, to make it worthy of the cinema, not simply a TV movie. Really, it is a TV movie.
I expect Gandolfini's death helped generate goodwill, morbid though that sounds. Enough Said got good reviews and made its money back, so there's that. I'm starting to wonder if Toni Collette's presence (and Keener's) in a movie is a warning sign: this is going to be a little bit of too much (as a friend once memorably expressed herself). It's a movie that mutes the men so that we can focus on how trying the women are as they tie (lie) themselves in knots, overcritical of their relationships but never looking at themselves in the mirror, psychologically speaking.
I guess I just don't buy Eva's relationship with Marianne, from paying client to new best friend, when the friendship seems to be so one-way in its sharing, Marianne constantly bitching about her ex-, Albert, and Eva, a little bundle of deceit, soaking it up and never once defending him, this guy she's supposed to care for. It's horrible really, and as I type I'm still waiting for someone to take Eva to task. My fingers are not crossed.
Intelligent and frustrating.
That's a joke from standup comic Dylan Moran. Nothing's funny if it's not at least a bit true, and Enough Said is one of those intelligent but depressing comedies about midlife interpersonal blues that demonstrates the truth of the joke.
I hated Seinfeld. I loved The Sopranos. Ergo, I'm more into this movie for James Gandolfini than for Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Not that I watch Enough Said expecting to be unsympathetic towards her character, Eva, but that's what the character and the plot does to me. Maybe women watch this movie, think Eva, her patronising friend Sarah (Toni Collette) and Eva's overbearing massage client/friend Marianne (Catherine Keener) are the tops. Me, nope. I think Gandolfini's Albert (Eva's new boyfriend, and as it turns out, Marianne's ex-husband), Sarah's tolerant husband Will (Ben Falcone) and Eva's ex- Peter (Toby Huss) are all likeable, reasonable people. The women are all snippy, bitchy, petty, catty, and let's be honest, dishonest. Or, at least, Eva is.
Eva is a masseuse with a daughter bound for college. Albert is a librarian who likewise has a daughter bound for college. Oops, Albert's daughter is also Marianne's. When Eva realises that her new friend/client is her boyfriend's ex- she keeps shtum, encourages Marianne (who is exhausting) to vent about Albert, and then allows herself to be influenced. She doesn't tell Marianne or Albert that she knows the other one.
Is it heading for Heartbreak Hotel? Can't say. Not sure there are any hearts beating in this movie. Actually, Eva's daughter and her bestie are more likeable than the mums and dads, so one starts wishing one could escape to college with them. It is a bit weird that Eva spends so much time with her daughter's friend, and that in the group dinner scene, a bit before the hour mark, Eva is not there with Albert, but with her daughter's friend instead. Surely she would want her ex- to see her with her new man? The friend also meets him before Eva's daughter does. Is Eva being cautious or is she just determined to sabotage her relationships?
I guess the movie is truthful about the ways people curate their memories of past relationships to make themselves come out brighter, halo for me, horns for the ex-. It's probably also the case that this is a movie intended for couples, or maybe just women, so it can be discussed at length afterwards. As a guy watching it, well, as well written and funny as it is, it's also just a bit too blah, a bit too meh, and very much lacking in something magical, or dramatic, to make it worthy of the cinema, not simply a TV movie. Really, it is a TV movie.
I expect Gandolfini's death helped generate goodwill, morbid though that sounds. Enough Said got good reviews and made its money back, so there's that. I'm starting to wonder if Toni Collette's presence (and Keener's) in a movie is a warning sign: this is going to be a little bit of too much (as a friend once memorably expressed herself). It's a movie that mutes the men so that we can focus on how trying the women are as they tie (lie) themselves in knots, overcritical of their relationships but never looking at themselves in the mirror, psychologically speaking.
I guess I just don't buy Eva's relationship with Marianne, from paying client to new best friend, when the friendship seems to be so one-way in its sharing, Marianne constantly bitching about her ex-, Albert, and Eva, a little bundle of deceit, soaking it up and never once defending him, this guy she's supposed to care for. It's horrible really, and as I type I'm still waiting for someone to take Eva to task. My fingers are not crossed.
Intelligent and frustrating.