The late, great James Gandolfini is winningly self-deprecating as a rare romantic lead in his penultimate film, Nicole Holofcener’s Woody Allen-esque “Enough Said.”
Shot last summer in Southern California, it’s a bittersweet romantic comedy centering on Eva, a divorced massage therapist played by another TV icon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in her first big-screen appearance since 1997.
Eva meets TV historian Albert (Gandolfini) at a party and the two of them hit it off, bonding over their shared awkwardness in social situations and experience as single parents sending their daughters off to college.
What Eva doesn’t realize is that Marianne (Catherine Keener) — a pretentious poet she meets at the same party who becomes a client and a friend — is Albert’s ex-wife.
When Eva puts two and two together, she doesn’t tell either one of them. She’s too thrilled that she now has the inside dope on why Marianne thinks her marriage to Albert failed (even if, from Marianne’s perspective, it was supposedly entirely his fault).
“It’s like having a human TripAdvisor for the guy you’re dating,” Eva gushes — referring to the popular travel Web site — to a friend of longer standing. This other friend (Toni Collette), a therapist, warns Eva that listening to her boyfriend’s ex running him down on a regular basis is a recipe for disaster.
Sure enough, Albert soon begins hearing a litany of very familiar complaints from Eva.
Given the hulking Gandolfini’s premature real-life death, it’s hard not to wince a little when you’re watching his character eating a tub of buttered popcorn, scarfing down guacamole or saying, “I’m planning on losing some weight. I really need to.”
There are well-developed subplots about Albert’s daughter (Eve Hewson), Eva’s daughter (Tracey Fairaway), and most interestingly, a friend of the daughter (Tavi Gevinson) who Eva casually encourages to lose her virginity.
A smart woman who sometimes does incredibly stupid things, Eva in some ways resembles a middle-aged version of Louis-Dreyfus’ most famous creation, Elaine Benes, on “Seinfeld” — and that’s underlined when director Holofcener (“Friends With Money”) occasionally allows Louis-Dreyfus to indulge in the sort of mugging that works better on TV.
The film also drags a bit toward the end, but neither of these is a major flaw in a movie with more funny lines than in most of Allen’s movies these days — not to mention a saner, clearer moral perspective.
It’s great to see Louis-Dreyfus, who’s been off the big screen since Allen’s “Deconstructing Harry.” She has wonderful chemistry with Gandolfini, whose Albert is warmly sympathetic, ruefully amusing, and ultimately hurt when he discovers Eva’s deception.
“Enough Said” is a another reminder that Gandolfini had enormous range as an actor beyond his signature role of Tony Soprano. Sadly, he has just one more completed movie left after this, “Animal Rescue,” due next year.