Plot: What’s it about?
Warning: This will make women cry.
Sadly, Enough Said will be remembered more for featuring one of the last film performances of actor James Gandolfini before anything else. Even if he were still alive today, his performance would garner plenty of praise. Gandolfini plays Albert, he meets Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) at a dinner party. He asks her out and the two of them begin a relationship. Eva is a masseuse and one of her clients (whom she meets at the same party where she meets Albert) is Marianne (Catherine Keener). Little does Eva know that Albert is Marianne’s Ex-husband. Obviously, this creates a conflict. Does Eva end the relation with Albert or with her client? Or does she continue to see both of them without admitting to either one of them? Well, we’ve all seen enough movies to know that she refuses to tell them. If she did, then there’d be no movie. Usually I would avoid revealing such a plot-line, but not only did the trailers give it away, but the point is made early and it’s a central issue. Over the course of the film we get plenty of character development. This is mostly made in an understated way through dialogue and casual conversations. Both Eva and Albert have children going to college in the fall. They’re actively trying to fill the void in their lives. There’s a small sub-plot involving a friend of Eva’s daughter (Chloe) played by Tavi Gevinson. Eva’s daughter, Ellen begins to grow jealous of the time Chloe spends with her mom. This sub-plot is fairly involving, but Ea and Albert’s relation is the heart of the film. As Eva learns more about Albert from Marianne she begins to question her relationship with him. It’s clear that the inevitable realization will happen and when it does it’s handled maturely and realistically. In a lesser movie it would be over-the-top and overplayed, but thankfully that isn’t the case here. Fortunately, it doesn’t play things in a sitcom-like manner.
There will be some who will try to find similarities between Eva and Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s TV Character Elaine Benes from Seinfeld. Imagine if Elaine finally decided to settle down and move on to a simpler life in a different city and you might have an idea. Truthfully, it just shows what a great actress she is. You’ll find zero traces of Gandolfini’s iconic TV character, Tony Soprano. Albert is light years away from the role that made Gandolfini famous. It’s all the more bittersweet that he went out on such a high note. The film is emotional, but never cheats. It earns all of its heartfelt moments. The supporting cast also do a good job here. Toni Collette plays Eva’s friend Sarah. She is married to Will (Ben Falcone). They have a few nice scenes, including a dinner scene where Eva picks on Albert for his eating habits among other things. It’s ironic that so much time is spent on Albert’s size when he have Gandolfini’s death so fresh in our minds. The film covers a lot of ground in it’s relatively short running time. It may be a bit too talky for some, but for those who enjoy mature, adult dramas then this is the film for you. The ending is fitting, but also unpredictable and certain things are uncertain, much like life itself. There’s a lot to love in Enough Said. The writing is sharp, the acting is great and it has its heart in the right place. You’ll find plenty of comedic moments as well as dramatic ones. I’d like to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus continue a career in films. She does great work here. Gandolfini also does fine work and it’s a shame he is no longer with us. Thankfully this film is worthy of his talent and reminds us what a great actor he was. Check out this film. Enough said.
Video: How’s it look?
One word I would use to describe this transfer would have to be – Clean. The entire image just has a clean, fresh look to it. A lot of this can be attributed to the film’s setting. The backdrop is always nice, the homes are all very modern yet simple. I couldn’t detect any flaws here. Julia has a very natural look throughout the film and it shows. She has a few subtle, wrinkles and stray hairs that show up in a few scenes. Gandolfini sports a beard in this film and I could spot a few gray hairs within it. Colors were always even and smooth. This transfer presents the film well. I can’t think of anything negative to say here. The image is AVC encoded and with a 1.85:1 ratio.
Audio: How’s it sound?
The DTS HD track is mostly front loaded, but that’s OK. This is a dialogue-driven so it shouldn’t be expected to do more than it should. What it does is provide a nice and engaging experience. Vocals always came across in a satisfying manner with no distortion This track will please fans of the film and really, that’s all you can ask for sometimes.
Supplements: What are the extras?
We get a few small features here, but a commentary track would’ve been nice. I also would’ve liked some kind of tribute to Gandolfini. This is a single disc release and includes a digital copy code.
- Second Takes (6:00) – A nice collection of outtakes. The cast obviously had a lot of fun with each other. It’s nice to see some unused takes with Gandolfini as well. I enjoyed the quick line where Julia asks Gandolfini if he ever watched Seinfeld. “It sucked” he replies. Funny stuff.
- Promotional Featurettes – We get 5 sections here: Cast, Story, Meet Eva and Albert, Nicole Holofcener and Julia. Sadly, there’s not a “Play All” option here. We get some decent notes here, but a lot of them are too promotional for my taste. They tell us a lot of what we already know. There’s some information repeated throughout the featurettes here as well.
- Theatrical Trailer and previews
- Digital Copy
