Nicole Holofcener's mature romantic comedy
Enough Said is going to be
tough for a lot of people to take; certainly not because the film is bad, but
instead because of what it represents. The film marks the final lead
performance by the late James Gandolfini, who passed away all too soon earlier
this year, and in a lot of ways his astounding performance seems like a career
turning point, the start of something new and promising that we unfortunately
will never get to see fulfilled. Paired up with the always-wonderful Julia
Louis-Dreyfus, Gandolfini is the heart and soul of a wonderfully funny and
incisive film about giving love a second chance.
Holofcener's prior explorations of the quirks of rich and clueless aren't
everyone's cup of tea, and certainly I have no fondness for mean-spirited films
such as
Lovely & Amazing,
Friends with Money, and
Please
Give. Whatever one thinks of her body of work, she crafts well-made human
comedies that emphasize character above all else. And so it's a real treat to
see Louis-Dreyfus have a chance to flex her dramatic muscles in her first
leading film role in sixteen years. She plays Eva, a divorced single mom
staring down the barrel of middle age and facing the prospect of an empty house
as her daughter Ellen prepares for college. At this point all she has left are
her job as a masseuse, her married best friends Sarah (Toni Collette) and Will
(Ben Falcone), and a lot of loneliness in her future.
Suffice it to say, life hasn't quite worked out the way Eva planned, and
she's thrown another curveball when another chance at love turns up in the most
unlikely of places and with the most unlikely person. Encouraged by her friends
to get back out there on the dating scene, Eva hits a party where she meets two
people who will immediately jumpstart her flagging social life. The first is
Marianne (Holofcener regular Catherine Keener), a poet with a rough exterior
who quickly becomes Eva's friend and top client. The other is Albert
(Gandolfini), a charming, quick-witted bear of a man with a thick beard and
perma-grin who immediately takes a liking to her. Eva is less impressed, and
recognizes that Albert isn't someone she would normally even look at. But their
chemistry is undeniable, and they bond over their similar sob stories and
mutual "empty nest" syndrome. Soon, Eva and Albert are inseparable,
but of course trouble is right around the corner.
It turns out that Albert is Marianne's ex-husband, with neither knowing that
they share Eva as a mutual acquaintance. Rather than nipping this potentially
awkward situation in the bud after she puts the pieces together, Eva decides to
stay quiet and play the middle. It affords her the chance to listen to Marianne
go into detail about all of Albert's annoying quirks, and potentially protect
herself from future heartbreak. The side effect is that it begins to color her judgment
of Albert, losing sight of why she fell for him in the first place.
Yes, it's a completely outrageous sitcom predicament and one that most
filmmakers would be content to pull a few laughs out of and nothing more. But
Holofcener sees it as an opportunity for a deft exploration of men and women of
a certain age who have seen the harsh side of falling in love. Eva and Albert's
hopeful/cautious first steps together are presented in measured doses of humor
and raw emotional intimacy. Albert is basically a big dork; clumsy,
uncoordinated, sweaty, and not at all comfortable around a beautiful woman like
Eva. He wears his sweats on dates, talks too loud at the movies, and is a train
wreck in bed. But he's also sincere, honest, and fiercely loyal to Eva right
from the beginning. It's that loyalty, along with a willingness to simply be
himself, which prove to be what attracts Eva in the first place and turns out
to be exactly what she was looking for. Unfortunately that also makes it more
painful when she begins to harp on his flaws. The hurt he feels at her betrayal
is palpable. And yet, we can't totally write off Eva, either. Her ex-husband
openly admits that he thinks they never should have been married in the first
place, and it's something Eva doesn't want to see repeated with Albert. She
does literally everything wrong in an attempt to shield herself from
heartbreak, but it's a mistake we can understand.
A comedic marvel whose skills have been perfected to a razor sharp edge,
Louis-Dreyfus is utterly irresistible as Eva. Holofcener's keen observational
sense of humor makes for the perfect match for her, while affording plenty of
opportunities to display her rarely-seen dramatic side. She and Gandolfini make
for an endlessly lovable pair, and he gets to show a softer, more sensitive
side than we ever saw on
The Sopranos. We've never seen him be this
down-to-earth, this....normal, shedding every ounce of the tough guy shtick
that has been heaped upon him in film after film. Gandolfini was a warm-hearted
guy by nature, and every bit of that shines through in a role that feels so
comfortable, so genuine, delivering the finest performance of his career. If
only we could have seen where it would lead him next.
Hopefully the chance to see Gandolfini will be enough to lure in those who
wouldn't normally seek a film like this out. After all there are no car wrecks,
space aliens, or superpowers anywhere in sight. A superbly acted, well-crafted
dramedy like
Enough Said doesn’t come around nearly often enough, but
when it does it should be celebrated.
The Drop marks the English-language debut of Belgian director Michael
R. Roskam, whose breakout film Bullhead was nominated for an Oscar.
Roskam's sensibilities wouldn't seem to mesh with such a distinctly American
crime story, but his attention to character detail crosses all borders. That
said; the film gets off to a slow start as bland narration by Saginowski explains
the particulars of a "drop bar", a place where the shadiest crime
elements can drop off dirty money without drawing suspicion. In this small
corner of Brooklyn is the bar that the soft-spoken Bob pours drinks and keeps
his head down, while his cousin Marv (James Gandolfini) bosses him around and
laments his lot in life. Marv used to own the bar, heck it's still named after
him, until the mob elbowed their way in. 
An armed robbery by a couple of local thugs would seem to be the story's
spark but the true catalyst is Bob's discovery of a bruised pit bull puppy,
dumped in the garbage of the scarred and fragile Nadia (Noomi Rapace). The two
begin to bond over the battered pup, and their mutually dark pasts. There's
something about Bob that doesn't quite click at first. He seems too nice for
this hard-scrabble community. He's slow, but certainly not an idiot. He's got
wits of the blue collar variety, the kind one learns on the streets and nowhere
else. It's possible he's never left the city limits all his life, and lives in
his parents' old home. 
The introduction of a puppy and girlfriend into his life leaves him wide
open to threats both familiar and foreign. In particular Matthias Schoenaerts,
star of Roskam's Bullhead, makes for an imposing, off-balanced menace as
Eric, a local tough with a dangerous rep. He senses weakness in Bob and
exploits it; much like a crew of Chechen mobsters has exploited Marv. This is,
in part, about the power victims give to their tormentors. Everybody knows
everybody in this town, and everybody has a rep, whether it's deserved or not.
Of course there's also a nosey cop (John Ortiz) sniffing around about the
robbery, threatening to uncover much more about everything and everyone. 
