Enough Said

What a joy it is to see a couple on screen that actually looks like a real-life couple -- and talks like one, too. That's the genius behind casting Gandolfini and Louis-Dreyfus as leads in ENOUGH SAID, a big-hearted, authentic romantic comedy that upends the genre and makes it more appealing for jaded viewers who may have given up on these movies long ago. Watching Eva and Albert go on dates feels like third-wheeling; they're that real together, sharing a magical but very grounded chemistry that makes viewers invested in their relationship. So when it goes awry, as movie couplings tend to do, we're right there with them, melancholy in the blunders and miscommunication. How long has it been since we've had a pairing this worthy of cheering?

Director Nicole Holofcener knows to stay with all the emotional beats: the awkwardness, the build, the fireworks. (There are, on occasion, some lulls, but the dips are neither deep nor lengthy.) She doesn't overplay or oversell her scenes. Every single person in this movie is perfectly cast -- everyone. Blogger Tavi Genvinson shows amazing promise as a high schooler who unwittingly inserts herself between a mother and a daughter, and Tracey Fairaway is great as Eva's daughter. But the movie belongs to the central triumvirate: Keener, Louis-Dreyfus and the incomparable, much-mourned Gandolfini. Enough Said has no problems broaching complicated relationship and parenting questions in this modern world. We should listen carefully.