The late James Gandolfini is charmingly self-deprecating as a schlubby romantic lead in his penultimate film, “Enough Said,” which premiered Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival ahead of its New York opening on Sept. 18th.
Shot last summer in California, it’s a ruefully funny comedy centering on a divorced massage therapist played by another TV icon, Julia Louis Dreyfus, in her first big-screen outing since 1997’s “Deconstructing Harry.”
She meets TV historian Gandolfini at a party and the two of them hit it off bonding over their shared experience of divorce and sending their daughters off to college.
What Dreyfus doesn’t realize is that a woman (Catherine Keener) she meets at the same party — a pretentious poet who becomes a client and a friend –is Gandolfini’s ex-wife.
When Dreyfus puts two and two together, she doesn’t tell either one until her deception is inevitably revealed. Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, “Enough Said” drags a bit at the end and Dreyfus is a bit broad playing a character who’s basically a middle-aged version of the one she played on “Seinfeld.”
But it’s great seeing Gandolfini stretching himself toward the end of his sadly too-short career. There are many funny lines in this Woody Allen-esque comedy, though Gandolfini saying “I know I need to lose weight” seems more sad at this point.