tek's rating:

Enough Said (PG-13)
20th Century Studios; IMDb; Likely Story; Rotten Tomatoes; Searchlight; Wikipedia
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This came out in 2013, but I didn't see it until 2017. It was very well received, critically, so it's something I certainly wanted to see, and I'm quite glad I finally have. It really is very good in terms of the romance, and the comedy, and the drama. Very realistic and complex, in the best ways (which includes some awkward and painful ways, as well as good ways). It's also necessary to note that one of the stars, James Gandolfini (best known for the HBO series "The Sopranos"), died a few months before the film was released. Which is, of course, very sad, and this is one of the rare movies where I actually think it's for the best that I didn't see it until some years after its original release. (I wasn't particularly familiar with Gandolfini's work; not enough to be a fan, or anything. But still, I think the time made it easier to watch the movie without constantly thinking about him being dead.)

Anyway, Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a divorced masseuse named Eva, who attends a party one night with her friends Sarah (Toni Collette) and Will. At the party, she meets a divorced woman named Marianne (Catherine Keener), who later becomes a client and friend to Eva. At the same party, she meets a divorced man named Albert (Gandolfini), whom she later starts dating. While she's not attracted to him at first, because of his weight, the two of them immediately develop a bond. They have a similar sense of humor, and they both have daughters who are going to be leaving for college in the fall. Eva's daughter, Ellen, has been acting somewhat more distant lately, to prepare herself for being away from her parents. Naturally, that's hard for Eva, who wants to spend as much time as possible with her before she leaves. Meanwhile, Ellen's friend Chloe starts bonding with Eva, since her own mother is apparently less nurturing than Eva. (Chloe's parents are also divorced, and her father is never around.) But this new closeness between Chloe and Eva annoys Ellen; she seems jealous, even though she was the one who was pulling away from her mother, and this new dynamic just makes her pull away even more. As for Albert's daughter, Tess, her role in the film is much smaller than either Ellen or Chloe's.

Well... a plot twist develops partway through the movie, which I don't want to spoil. I kind of suspected it was coming (I really can't recall whether I'd ever read about it in reviews, when the movie came out four years ago). And it might be something that... is important enough to the plot that some people might not even consider it a spoiler, but part of the basic premise. But I would consider it a spoiler. It seemed to me like quite a good way into the movie before it was actually revealed. And... it changed things, but I can't really say how, without spoiling it.

So, anyway, I'll just say again that it's a good movie. I really liked the relationship between Eva and Albert. And I really liked the sort of parental triangle between Eva, Ellen, and Chloe. And I guess that's all I have to say. ...Oh, except I did kind of want to say that um... even though this is what you might call a very talky movie, the title is still kind of ironic, because in both Eva's romantic and parental relationships, it seems like not enough is said. (Well, that's kind of the point, I guess. It's pretty obvious. But I'd still feel like I hadn't said enough if I didn't point it out.)


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