Enough Said is a decent rom-com

James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Enough Said

Good comedies about adult relationships are hard to come by. They fall into a category of their own, really, that doesn’t get explored nearly enough. I guess midlife crisis, divorce and talking to kids about sex are just not an easy sell.

Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener (Friends With Money, Please Give), Enough Said is a rare and tender exploration of the insecurities people never grow out of. Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini in his second-to-last film before his untimely death, the movie centres on their relationship, or, more precisely, on their attempt at having one. Eva (Louis-Dreyfus) is a masseuse who has recently befriended a hippie poet from the Joni Mitchell generation, Marianne (Holofcener regular Catherine Keener). Little does Eva know, however, that Marianne’s “fat and flabby” ex-husband is Albert (Gandolfini), the guy she just had a really nice first date with. Eva becomes obsessed with Marianne’s terrible stories about him, comparing them to advice from a “human trip advisor.” “If you could avoid staying at a bad hotel, wouldn’t you?” she asks her best friend Sarah (Toni Collette).

Ultimately, the joy of Enough Said comes from watching Louis-Dreyfus and Gandolfini bounce awkward pauses, loud laughs and silly jokes about age off each other. They bring a youthful tenderness to the characters, making them seem much more inexperienced than their age and relationship experience would suggest. It is particularly bittersweet to see Gandolfini play such a light and likeable role, an ability untapped by his body of work. Even though the story is largely one-sided and from Eva’s point of view, Holfcener manages to inject it with humour from beginning to end without sparing any depth of character. ■

Enough Said opens Friday