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Enough Said

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Enough Said
The film poster features a photo of a bearded, balding white man in a grey t-shirt and a brunette woman in a dotted dress shirt. Both are sitting on a stoop and smiling, with the primary cast and title "Enough Said" above them. Under the title, "Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener" is visible. At the bottom, the poster's billing block can be seen.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNicole Holofcener
Written byNicole Holofcener
Produced by
  • Anthony Bregman
  • Stefanie Azpiazu
Starring
CinematographyXavier Pérez Grobet
Edited by
Music byMarcelo Zarvos
Production
companies
Distributed byFox Searchlight Pictures
Release dates
  • September 7, 2013 (2013-09-07) (TIFF)
  • September 18, 2013 (2013-09-18) (United States)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$8 million[2]
Box office$25.6 million[2]

Enough Said is a 2013 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. The film stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette and Ben Falcone.[3] Louis-Dreyfus plays Eva, a divorced masseuse who begins a relationship with Albert (Gandolfini), only to discover that he is the former husband of her client and friend Marianne (Keener).

Holofcener wrote the script, which was partly inspired by her own life, after she was approached by two producers from Fox Searchlight Pictures who offered to produce her next project. It was filmed in Los Angeles on a budget of $8 million. Gandolfini died after the film was completed but before it was released; Holofcener dedicated the film to him.

Enough Said premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was released on Gandolfini’s birthday, September 18, 2013, ranking as the fifth best-reviewed wide release of the year, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The film was praised for Louis-Dreyfus and Gandolfini's performances, as well as Holofcener's screenplay and received several major award nominations, including for a Golden Globe for Louis-Dreyfus (her first nomination for a film role), a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Independent Spirit Awards and four Critics' Choice Movie Awards.

Plot

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Eva, a massage therapist and the divorced mother of a teenage girl, attends a party in Pacific Palisades with her friends, married couple Will and Sarah. There she meets a poet, Marianne, and Will introduces Eva to one of his friends, Albert. After the party, Albert asks Will for Eva's number and, although hesitant since she is not physically attracted to him, Eva agrees to go on a date with Albert, which goes well. Marianne contacts Eva for a massage, and after taking an immediate liking to one another they become friends.

Eva finds herself growing fonder of Albert and they have lunch with his teenage daughter, Tess, who, like Eva's daughter Ellen, is graduating from high school and moving away to attend college. A few days later, Eva goes to her massage appointment with Marianne and realizes that Albert is Marianne's ex-husband after Marianne tells a story about how he manages to pick out onions when scooping salsa — the same story Albert had told Eva, but about guacamole. Tess then arrives at the house and Eva's suspicions are confirmed. Marianne tries to introduce Eva to Tess, but Eva hides behind a tree to avoid the meeting. Eva continues seeing Albert, keeping her friendship with Marianne a secret; likewise, she does not tell Marianne that she is seeing him.

Eva encourages Marianne to voice her complaints about Albert so she can identify potential problems in her relationship with him. At the encouragement of Eva, Sarah and Will invite her and Albert to a dinner party, which ends badly after Eva nitpicks over Albert's faults, which upsets him. At another appointment with Marianne, Eva is exposed when Albert arrives to drop Tess off. He is angry that Eva kept her friendship with Marianne a secret, and breaks up with her.

Eva and her ex-husband take Ellen to the airport for her flight to college. A few months later, on Thanksgiving Day, Eva drives by Albert's home and stops in front of the house on her way to pick up Ellen from the airport. He sees her and she awkwardly waves. He eventually comes outside, to Eva's surprise, and sits with her on the porch while they begin to renew their relationship.

Cast

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Production

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus was cast after approaching writer/director Nicole Holofcener about a role.

Enough Said was the fifth film written and directed by Nicole Holofcener.[4] After the release of her fourth film, Please Give (2010), she was approached by Matthew Greenfield and Claudia Lewis from Fox Searchlight, who offered to produce Holofcener's next project on the condition that it was more mainstream than her previous films.[5] She wrote three drafts of the screenplay over six months.[4][6] The premise was partly inspired by Holofcener's own life as a divorced mother of two teenagers and her "feelings and fears about what [her] life will be like when [her] kids go away".[7][8] While writing the film, she said, "I was having thoughts about my ex-husband and my new boyfriend and thinking about being married and how I'm trying to have a relationship that's happier the second time."[9] Small details of the plot were also drawn from her life; Albert's guacamole-eating habit was inspired by a story that her boyfriend told her about his ex-wife.[5]

Neither Julia Louis-Dreyfus nor James Gandolfini was Holofcener's first choice to play the lead roles.[10] Louis-Dreyfus was cast after she approached Holofcener to express her interest in appearing in one of Holofcener's films.[11] Holofcener's first choice as Albert was Louis C.K., who read part of the script but was not interested in the role.[7] Gandolfini did not feel that he was right for the part,[12] but Holofcener later described him as "perfect".[7] Catherine Keener, who played Marianne, is a frequent collaborator of Holofcener's, having appeared in all four previous films that Holofcener had directed.[13]

The film was shot on location over 24 days in Los Angeles, with a budget of $8 million.[4][12] It was filmed by cinematographer Xavier Pérez Grobet, with whom Holofcener had previously worked on the HBO television series Enlightened.[4] Although each scene was scripted, the actors would often ad-lib lines of dialogue.[10] The final scene of the film, in which Eva and Albert reunite in front of his house, was improvised by Louis-Dreyfus and Gandolfini.[14] It was edited by Robert Frazen, Holofcener's boyfriend at the time, who had also worked on all four of her previous films.[4]

Gandolfini died of a heart attack in June 2013, almost a year after production on the film had ended but before it was released.[8] The film's editing was complete by then but Holofcener added a dedication to the end-credits reading "For Jim".[14][15] Gandolfini never saw the completed film.[14]

Release

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Enough Said premiered on September 7, 2013 at the Toronto International Film Festival[16] and was released theatrically shortly thereafter on September 18, 2013. On its opening weekend, the film earned $240,000 from four theaters for a $60,000 per-theater average, ranking among 2013's best specialty release openers.[17] It received a wide release on September 27 and gradually expanded to a peak of 835 theaters in late October.[18] Over 121 days in theaters, the film grossed $17.6 million at the U.S. box office. It earned $7.7 million from other countries, making a total worldwide gross of $25.3 million.[19]

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray formats on January 14, 2014. The Blu-ray disc includes six making-of featurettes, titled "Second Takes", "Cast", "Story", "Meet Eva and Albert", "Nicole Holofcener" and "Julia".[20]

Reception

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James Gandolfini, who died before Enough Said was released and to whom the film was dedicated, was commended for his performance.

Critical response

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Enough Said received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 95%, based on 190 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Wryly charming, impeccably acted, and ultimately quite bittersweet, Enough Said is a grown-up movie in the best possible way."[21] Another review aggregation website, Metacritic, gave the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 44 critics, signifying "generally favorable reviews".[22] Many critics also listed the film among their 10 best of the year.[23]

Specifically, Enough Said was praised for its commitment to realism, both in the way Holofcener's characters converse and in the themes the film addresses. In a review for The New York Times, A. O. Scott claimed that "Line for line, scene for scene, it is one of the best-written American film comedies in recent memory."[24] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt that Enough Said demonstrated "Holofcener's gift for portraying life as it is lived",[25] while David Denby, writing for The New Yorker, wrote that it "approaches novelistic richness".[26] In The New York Times Book Review, Francine Prose praised Holofcener for having written characters "with sufficient depth and wisdom that ... the actors never seem to be movie stars impersonating people. Rather, they disappear into the vulnerable and self-doubting characters they play without a hint of the preening vanity that so often causes cinematic performances to seem forced and shallow."[27]

Numerous critics also praised Gandolfini and Louis-Dreyfus's performances in the film. Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that Gandolfini brought "superb sensitivity and naked vulnerability" to his portrayal of Albert,[28] while Indiewire's Eric Kohn felt that Gandolfini "truly blossoms" in the film.[29] Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgenstern similarly described Gandolfini's performance as "marvelous" and "grounded in genial humanity", and found Louis-Dreyfus to be "equally endearing".[30] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe wrote that Gandolfini gave "a performance of immense tenderness and charm", "as endearing as it is heartbreaking", and said of Louis-Dreyfus, "Holofcener brings out a vulnerability you may have forgotten was in this actress."[31] Slate magazine's Dana Stevens, meanwhile, wrote that "There's no one making films right now who writes that kind of dialogue better than Holofcener ... And it's hard to imagine anyone speaking it better than Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus."[32]

In a negative review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle wrote that he found Eva and Albert's romantic pairing implausible and, knowing that Gandolfini died after making the film, found the references to Albert's obesity "awkward and macabre and not at all enjoyable".[33] The Financial Times' Antonia Quirke, meanwhile, described the film as immemorable, "very modest" and "too depressing".[34]

Accolades

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Award Date of ceremony Category Nominee(s) Results Ref
Alliance of Women Film Journalists December 19, 2013 Best Original Screenplay Nicole Holofcener Nominated [35]
Best Woman Director Won
Best Woman Writer Won
Boston Society of Film Critics December 8, 2013 Best Screenplay Won
Best Supporting Actor James Gandolfini Won
Chicago Film Critics Association December 16, 2013 Best Supporting Actor Won
Critics' Choice Movie Award January 16, 2014 Best Actor in a Comedy Nominated [36]
Best Actress in a Comedy Julia Louis-Dreyfus Nominated
Best Comedy Nominated
Best Supporting Actor James Gandolfini Nominated
Denver Film Critics Society January 13, 2014 Best Original Screenplay Nicole Holofcener Nominated [35]
Film Independent Spirit Awards March 1, 2014 Best Screenplay Nominated [37]
Best Supporting Male James Gandolfini Nominated
Golden Globe Award January 12, 2014 Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Julia Louis-Dreyfus Nominated [38]
Houston Society of Film Critics December 15, 2013 Best Supporting Actor James Gandolfini Nominated [35]
London Film Critics' Circle February 2, 2014 Supporting Actor of the Year Nominated
Phoenix Film Critics Society December 17, 2013 Best Supporting Actor Nominated
San Diego Film Critics Society December 11, 2013 Best Original Screenplay Nicole Holofcener Nominated
Best Supporting Actor James Gandolfini Nominated
Satellite Award February 23, 2014 Best Actress – Motion Picture Julia Louis-Dreyfus Nominated [39]
Best Original Screenplay Nicole Holofcener Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award January 18, 2014 Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role James Gandolfini Nominated [40]
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association December 14, 2013 Best Original Screenplay Nicole Holofcener Nominated [35]
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association December 9, 2013 Best Original Screenplay Nominated
Best Supporting Actor James Gandolfini Nominated
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On the animated series The Great North, Beef Tobin's favorite film is Enough Said and his continual replaying of it leads to his family developing cabin fever while being iced in. [41]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Enough Said (2013)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Enough Said (2013)". The Numbers. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  3. ^ "Enough Said". Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Retrieved August 13, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e Gray, Tim (December 19, 2013). "Directors on Their Teams: Nicole Holofcener on 'Enough Said'". Variety. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  5. ^ a b Mitchell, Wendy (January 10, 2014). "Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said". Screen International. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  6. ^ Silverstein, Melissa (September 20, 2013). "Interview with Nicole Holofcener – Writer and Director of Enough Said". Indiewire. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  7. ^ a b c Robey, Tim (October 19, 2013). "Nicole Holofcener interview: 'Gandolfini was perfect – belly and all'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  8. ^ a b Sperling, Nicole (August 30, 2013). "Nicole Holofcener offers telling look at her own life in 'Enough Said'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  9. ^ Lang, Brent (September 20, 2013). "'Enough Said' Director Talks Oscars, James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Chemistry: 'It Was Pretty Instantaneous'". TheWrap. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  10. ^ a b Jacobs, Matthew (January 8, 2014). "Nicole Holofcener On 'Enough Said,' Her Golden Globe Snub and the TV Show She'd Most Like To Direct". The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  11. ^ Goodsell, Luke (November 26, 2013). "Interview: Enough Said Director: 'I Made James Gandolfini Cry'". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  12. ^ a b Pond, Steve (December 9, 2013). "Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the 'Enough Said' Scene With James Gandolfini Moviegoers Almost Didn't See". TheWrap. Archived from the original on February 20, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  13. ^ Setoodeh, Ramin (October 1, 2013). "Q&A: Catherine Keener, Nicole Holofcener: 'Enough Said' Duo Talk Their Unique Alliance". Variety. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  14. ^ a b c Lewis, Hilary (September 17, 2013). "'Enough Said' Screening: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nicole Holofcener Remember James Gandolfini". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  15. ^ Barlow, Helen (November 13, 2013). "Enough Said: Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Nicole Holofcener interview". Special Broadcasting Service. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
  16. ^ Sharkey, Betsy (September 7, 2013). "TIFF 2013: 'Enough Said' a bittersweet goodbye to James Gandolfini". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  17. ^ "Specialty Box Office: James Gandolfini Pic 'Enough Said' Bows Strong, 'Thanks For Sharing' OK". Deadline Hollywood. September 22, 2013. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  18. ^ "Enough Said: Weekly". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  19. ^ "Enough Said". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  20. ^ Keefer, Ryan (January 14, 2014). "Enough Said (Blu-ray)". DVD Talk. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  21. ^ "Enough Said (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  22. ^ "Enough Said Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  23. ^ Dietz, Jason (December 8, 2013). "2013 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  24. ^ Scott, A. O. "The Woman Who Knew Too Much : Enough Said". The New York Times. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  25. ^ Turan, Kenneth (September 18, 2013). "Review: 'Enough Said' says just enough". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  26. ^ "Critic Reviews for Enough Said". Metacritic. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  27. ^ Prose, Francine (September 20, 2013). "Nicole Holofcener's Beautiful Imperfections". The New York Times Book Review. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  28. ^ Hornaday, Ann (September 26, 2013). "'Enough Said' movie review". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  29. ^ Kohn, Eric (September 17, 2013). "Review: Why James Gandolfini's Performance in Nicole Holofcener's 'Enough Said' Is His Best Movie Role". Indiewire. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  30. ^ Morgenstern, Joe (September 26, 2013). "Beautifully 'Said': A Piercing Comedy". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  31. ^ Burr, Ty (September 26, 2013). "Empty-nest comedy 'Enough Said' offers much to treasure". Boston Globe. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  32. ^ Stevens, Dana. "The best movies of 2013: Dana Stevens on a year of outrageous cinematic bounty". Slate. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  33. ^ LaSalle, Mick (September 26, 2013). "'Enough Said' review: Macabre twist to romance". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  34. ^ Quirke, Antonia (October 18, 2013). "Enough Said – film review". Financial Times. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  35. ^ a b c d Dietz, Jason (December 3, 2013). "2013 Film Awards and Nominations Scorecard". Metacritic. Archived from the original on May 22, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  36. ^ Hammond, Pete (December 16, 2013). "'American Hustle', '12 Years A Slave' Lead BFCA's Critics Choice Movie Awards Nominations". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  37. ^ "2014 Spirit Awards: '12 Years A Slave', 'All Is Lost', 'Frances Ha', 'Inside Llewyn Davis' & 'Nebraska' Nab Best Feature Noms". Deadline Hollywood. November 26, 2013. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  38. ^ Lyttelton, Oliver (December 12, 2013). "'12 Years A Slave' Leads Golden Globe Nominations As 'American Hustle,' 'Nebraska' Also Perform Strongly". Indiewire. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  39. ^ Pond, Steve (December 2, 2013). "'12 Years a Slave' Tops Satellite Award Nominations". The Wrap. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  40. ^ "SAG Awards Nominations: '12 Years A Slave' And 'Breaking Bad' Lead Way". Deadline Hollywood. December 11, 2013. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  41. ^ "Code Enough Said Adventure". The Great North. Season 3. Episode 4. October 16, 2022. Fox.
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