thoughts on Enough Said (spoilers)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Eva, masseuse and divorced mom of Ellen (Tracey Fairaway), who will be going away to college soon.  At a party she attends with friends Sarah (Toni Collette) and Will (Ben Falcone), she meets two new people: Marianne (Catherine Keener), a poet who becomes her massage client, and Albert (James Gandolfini), who she begins dating.  She grows to like both a lot, though she admits she wasn't initially attracted to Albert, and though Marianne is constantly complaining about her ex-husband, who she describes as a fat slob.  She is beginning to get serious with Albert-- they're sleeping together; he's introduced her to his daughter, Tess (Eve Hewson)-- when she realizes that he is the ex-husband that Marianne can't stand.

She realizes this by chance, when, over salsa, Marianne mentions how it drove her crazy that her ex-husband always avoided the onions in his guacamole, something Albert had also told Eva about.  Eva has the perfect opportunity to reveal that she is dating Marianne's ex almost immediately: Tess shows up, so all Eva would have to do is say hi, and the secret would be out.  It would be awkward, and Eva and Marianne would agree that perhaps Marianne should find a different masseuse.  Eva would then tell Albert, and they would talk about what a weird coincidence that was, and he would probably wonder, or perhaps directly ask, what Marianne said about him.  But it would probably be okay, because it wouldn't be anyone's fault-- just an unfortunate coincidence.  But instead, Eva literally hides to avoid having to talk to Tess, later pretending that she wandered off to check out Marianne's yard.  Let me repeat: SHE GOES OUT OF HER WAY TO KEEP IT A SECRET THAT SHE IS DATING MARIANNE'S EX-HUSBAND. 

It's not that I have to approve of everything a film character does, exactly.  But it's nice when their actions don't make me spend maybe a third of a movie cringing.  While she may initially keep the secret to put off an awkward encounter, after a point it seems like she continues to give Marianne massages just to hear bad things about Albert.  I've thought a lot about what exactly bothers me so much about this, and I think the things is is that while Eva likes Albert and enjoys his company, she basically thinks she's too good for him.  When Marianne says bad things about him, she realizes that other people will probably think so, too.  She takes him to dinner at Will and Sarah's basically so that they can check him out, then proceeds to spend the whole night either picking at him (making derisive comments about how much guacamole he eats and saying she's going to buy him a calorie book) or actually trying to get her friends to join her in making fun of him (because he can't whisper, of all things).  What's going on there is that she's afraid that Will and Sarah will be like, "What are you doing with this fat loser?" (they're not, by the way), so she's trying to act like she doesn't like him that much.  Have you ever had a friend who was nice to you when it was just the two of you but ignored you or made fun of you when his or her "cool" friends were around? It's like that, and it's obnoxious.

Eva also oversteps her boundaries with her daughter Ellen's friend, Chloe (Tavi Gevinson).  We see this in one of the first scenes we meet Chloe.  Eva walks in on a conversation where Ellen and Chloe are discussing whether Chloe should lose her virginity to her boyfriend.  Ellen, as a normal teen would, tries to stop the conversation when her mom enters the room.  But Eva weasels her way into the conversation, and Chloe lets her, and before you know it, Eva is telling Chloe that she should do it, if she wants to-- she can't live in fear.  The advice is too direct, as far as I'm concerned-- help her think it through, if you want, but let her come to a decision on her own, you know? The advice is also inappropriate, given that Chloe is neither Eva's friend (she's Ellen's) nor her daughter, making the whole thing ABSOLUTELY NONE OF EVA'S BUSINESS. Additionally, before long, Chloe (who maybe is having some sort of real problem with her own mother or maybe just is having trouble relating to her in the way that many teen girls do-- we don't know, because Eva never bothers to ask) is showing up at the house when Ellen isn't there, having breakfast with Eva and Albert, painting Eva's toenails, and snuggling with her on the couch.  Understandably, neither Ellen nor Chloe's mom like this one little bit.  Ellen is doing the normal teen thing of pulling away from her mom (Ellen actually knows she is doing this and articulates it, which I don't buy for one minute), and Eva is kind of letting Chloe take her place, which probably happens sometimes when a kid has a younger sister, or something.  But Chloe isn't Ellen's sister, and it's weird, and both Ellen and Chloe's mom call her on it.

There's also this whole thing with a couple of massage clients that Eva finds annoying.  One is an extremely chatty mom.  Another is a guy who lives up a very long, steep flight of stairs but never offers to help her carry her massage table.  When she complains to her friends, Will asks if she's ever asked him to help her carry the table.  Eva says she shouldn't have to.  Late in the movie, she finally does ask, and he's all, "Oh, of course! I'm so sorry!"  Like-- he's not a jerk.  He's just oblivious.  Eva also stops zoning out during the chatty client's massage long enough to hear her ask, "So what's new with you?" Eva is taken aback-- why, she's nice, too! I guess these encounters are supposed to show Eva that she tends to assume the worst of people.  I wasn't overly impressed.

Additionally, there's a subplot where Will and Sarah's maid is constantly just shoving stuff in drawers rather than actually putting it where it belongs.  Sarah wants to fire her but can't go through with it.  At one point, she does but feels bad.  At another, the maid quits and then comes back.  There's a whole thing where Sarah is frustrated because Will keeps insisting that she's the one to fire her.  I don't know.  I kind of rolled my eyes, because could they have picked more of a rich person problem for Will and Sarah to have? God.

The performances are all very good.  I will say that.  However, there are so few likable/relatable characters that it was pretty hard to care about this movie.