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FILMS ARE GRADED BY CITY PAPER CRITICS A-F.
Enough Said
✚ NEW
26 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |
S E P T E M B E R 2 6 - O C T O B E R 2 , 2 0 1 3 | C I T Y PA P E R . N E T
ENOUGH SAID | AKnown for his chilling portrayal of a crime boss on The Sopranos, the late James Gandolfini takes on a vastly different role — one of his last — in the clever, more-than-just-a-chickflick rom-com Enough Said. In the latest film by writer/director Nicole Holofcener (Walking and Talking, Please Give), Gandolfini is Albert, a single, long-divorced dad who halfjokingly describes himself as a disorganized slob. At a party, he meets Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a peppy masseuse who is also a divorced parent with a college-bound kid. As fate would have it, Eva becomes acquainted with Albert’s ex-wife Marianne (Catherine Keener) and takes her on as a client, unaware of the identity of her former husband. While Albert woos Eva with self-mocking humor and touching gestures, Marianne gripes to her about him: clumsy in bed, can’t stick to a diet and won’t break his annoying habit of picking out the onions in guacamole. Even after Eva connects the dots, she keeps asking her “human TripAdvisor” about Albert, allowing Marianne’s venomous replies to poison her relationship because, after her divorce, she’s too cautious to take another romantic leap of faith. With a face as expressive as Louis-Dreyfus’, every wince and smile is magnified, making each scene that much more emotionally affecting, and the nimble dialogue, expertly alternating between wisecracks and expressions of vulnerability, makes us both laugh with these flawed, true-to-life characters and feel for them. Not too jokey, not too schmaltzy, Enough Said offers a believable mix of romance and comedy, ending with a surprise punch to the emotional gut. —Paulina Reso (Ritz East)
THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI Read Drew Lazor’s review at citypaper.net/movies. (Wide release)
✚ CONTINUING THE FAMILY | CAn American gangster caricature that’s self-aware in all the wrong ways, The Family is Luc Besson at his top-heaviest — there’s so much violence and so little spirit that it’s easy to forget there’s a movie taking place between all the femur-snapping. Relocated to France as part of the witness protection program, “Fred Blake” (Robert De Niro), née Giovanni Manzoni, knows he needs to leave his mob-snitch past behind. Too bad he, his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) and his kids (Dianna Agron and John D’Leo) are unable to resolve any conflict without deception, brutality and MacGyvered explosives, much to the frustration of grumbly-bumbly FBI agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones, asleep at the wheel). When the Stateside mafiosi Giovanni ratted out learn of his location in the most asinine manner possible, it sets off a predictable firefight filled with Mediterranean henchmen, but no amount of high-caliber ammo is able to blast apart Agron’s awful acting. The Family’s most infuriating moment, however, comes when Besson has De Niro’s character plop down and watch a classic mob film starring — yes — Robert De Niro. No spoilers on which one, but your mood will already be spoiled by this point, anyhow. —Drew Lazor (Wide release)
POPULAIRE | C RUSH See Drew Lazor’s review on p. 23. (Wide release)
A French confection made for an audience that refers to films as “cute” without irony and with a positive connota-