Review of Enough Said (2013) by Thegodfatherson — 19 Sep 2013

It’s at this fine-grained observation of human folly that Holofcener excels, without ever abandoning her compassion for her wayward, fumbling characters. A subplot about Eva’s best friend’s inability to fire her housekeeper gestures, a bit too obliquely, at social satire (Holofcener’s last two films, Friends With Money and Please Give, dealt more explicitly with matters of class and social mobility).

But I appreciate that this movie doesn’t make us choose between context-based character humor and snappy romantic banter—instead, it provides both in great bounty. Elaine Benes and Tony Soprano may seem an unlikely pairing, but Louis-Dreyfus and Gandolfini make strangely persuasive bedfellows—in fact, they’re one of the most impossible-not-to-root-for on-screen couples in recent memory.

Gandolfini, by all accounts, was a gentle, modest, and sensitive man who felt emotionally depleted by the violent, dark roles he was generally called on to play in the wake of The Sopranos. Here, we get a glimpse of the second career he could have had as a light comedic heartthrob.

That it won’t ever come to be is only one of countless reasons to wish Gandolfini were still around.