Review: "Enough Said"

Writer/director Nicole Holofcener’s witty new film, Enough Said, is the story of a middle-aged, divorced masseuse, Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who anxiously begins a romance with a quirky, middle-aged divorced man, Albert (James Gandolfini).  Concurrently, she develops a friendship with Marianne (Catherine Keener), a poet who loves to complain about how terrible her life was while she was married, which Eva doesn’t mind, until she realizes that her new boyfriend is the ex-husband her new friend passionately hates.  The plot hook is compelling and, though the film meanders slowly at times, the writing is excellent and the acting is realistic superb.  It is, if nothing else, a phenomenally realistic and intelligent story about how true love makes us better–after it makes us a whole lot worse