CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Film Review: Romantic Comedy ‘Enough Said’ is a Sweet, Gentle Gem
CHICAGO – The plot description which this review will eventually get to is going to make Nicole Holofcener’s “Enough Said” sound sitcomish. It’s a conceit straight out of Must-See TV. And so I want to say up front that you need to dismiss the overly slapstick-y preview and your hesitation about the plot and embrace this gem of a comedy, the rare laugher made by adults for adults that understands dynamics of human relationships beyond meet-cutes and slapstick humor. It gets to the heart of some very rarely explored concepts in relationship films like the idea that just because a person isn’t right for one spouse doesn’t mean he won’t be right for another. Holofcener and her ridiculously talented cast find truth about love and second chances not in their set-up but in the honesty of the characters placed within it. I love this movie.
Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, so remarkably perfect on TV in shows like “Seinfeld” and “Veep,” for which she just won a second Emmy, does easily the best film work of her career as Eva, a divorced woman whose daughter is heading off to college, leaving her to wonder what’s next in her life. As she jokes with best friend Sarah (Toni Collette), she needs a hobby. Despite Sarah’s unusual marriage with Will (Ben Falcone), Sarah thinks it might be good if Eva met a man, which she happens to do at a party when she’s introduced to Albert (James Gandolfini). He’s not her typical beau. He’s overweight, a little gruff, and rough around the edges. But there’s something charming about him and the two have a great first date.
Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Enough Said” in our reviews section. |
Eva doesn’t just find potential romance at the party; she also meets the charismatic Marianne (Catherine Keener), a poet. No, seriously. Marianne is the kind of woman who grows her own herbs in the garden outside her perfectly considered home. Every element is in place and I think her sense of order appeals to Eva, a woman without as much in place. Eva, a massage therapist, begins a professional relationship with Marianne but the two quickly become real friends and the poet begins complaining about her ex-husband, as people are prone to do. He was a slob. He was indecisive. He was unmotivated. Of course, his name was Albert.
Enough Said
Photo credit: Fox Searchlight