What’s perhaps most interesting about the film are the
circumstances surrounding the making of the film, as who would have ever
thought that Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the only female lead character from the
infamous TV comedy sitcom Seinfeld (1989
– 1998), a show that for all practical purposes was about nothing, would
somehow be starring in a movie opposite James Gandolfini from The Sopranos (1999 – 2007, the cable TV
show that ranks among the greatest ever, a mob crime boss with a hair-trigger
temper whose anger issues are notorious, and who personally executes about a
dozen people on the show. Louis-Dreyfus
hasn’t made a movie since Woody Allen’s DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (1997), so the
likelihood of these two crossing paths was highly unlikely, yet here they are
starring opposite one another, and it happens to be the final film of
Gandolfini’s career due to his premature death.
Brilliant as he was in Zero
Dark Thirty (2012), Not Fade
Away (2012), and Killing
Them Softly (2012), Gandolfini is often at his best when showing a tender
and vulnerable side, where he’s a gentle giant of a man capable of genuine
sweetness that can sweep you off your feet.
Despite a formidable screen prominence throughout the film, one gets the
feeling that it’s not enough, that we wish there could be more, where it’s hard
to believe that this is the end. But
it’s a very classy role that Gandolfini fits to a T, as he’s a perfect fit for
the part of Albert, a divorced husband living alone in a modest home while his
ex-wife Marianne (Catherine Keener) and beautiful teenage daughter Tess (Eve
Hewson, Bono’s daughter) live in a luxurious estate in Santa Monica overlooking
the ocean. He allows them to indulge in
all the luxury, which they most certainly do, while he lives a completely
unpretentious life. The film, however,
is seen through the eyes of Eva (Louis-Dreyfus), another divorced single
parent who works as a masseuse, whose most distinctive characteristic is the
ability to quietly listen to the endless gripes and moans of her customers complaining
about their banal lives without so much as uttering a peep in response.
The rhythm of the film is established by Eva’s routine of
visiting her various clients, each with a distinct personality that includes something
that usually grates on her nerves but she never speaks of it, where we see her
endlessly lugging around her portable table before arriving back home to her
daughter Ellen (Tracey Fairaway), who’s on the verge of leaving home for Sarah
Lawrence University. While Eva has a
close relationship with her daughter, who often appears more grounded and
stable than her mother, she has issues about being alone afterwards, as if
she’s supposed to have “found herself,” instead of feeling restless about her
all but uncertain future. At a party,
she meets a new guy, Albert, though at the time she claims there are no
attractive men at the party, and feels, at least initially, like he’s fat and
overweight, as if he doesn’t take care of himself, but he’s also funny and
really easy to get along with. At the
same time, she also meets an interesting writer, Marianne, who lives in a
fabulously upscale home where everything is perfectly in place, where it’s like
the ideal dream home for Eva, as it’s unbelievably comfortable for the masseuse
as well. Eva quickly becomes fast
friends with both, initially not sure about Albert, but their quick wit quickly
escalates into a romantic affair, while everything about finding Marianne is
like she hit the motherlode. In
addition, Eva latches onto her daughter’s best friend Chloe (Tavi Gevinson),
who really dreads her own homelife and basically never goes home, where Chloe’s
more straightforward and emotionally communicative than her own daughter, all
of which gives Eva a certain stature, as if she’s a strong and stable force,
yet Louis-Dreyfus has made a living doing insecure comedy, where her character
usually unravels in a spectacular meltdown of sorts, yet here, despite her most
anxious fears, she holds her own and easily carries the picture.
While Eva and Albert have plenty in common, divorcées with
intelligent daughters that are about to leave for prestigious universities,
each unable to fathom what they ever found in their ex-spouses, as they have so
little in common with them today, completely at odds in parenting techniques
which led to most of the endless marital arguments. Unbeknownst
to Eva, Marianna and Albert were once married, and the guy she continually
rails against during her masseuse sessions is Albert, which puts him at a distinct
disadvantage and in an entirely different light, as he’s not there to defend
himself. In fact, like all the other
problems and complaints she hears, Eva listens but says nothing, irregardless
of potential consequences. While all the
actors have a natural affinity for authenticity, including Toni Collette as
Eva’s best friend, who even retains her Australian accent, the movie also hits
all the narrative notes of impending middle age, where one has had to rebound
from past mistakes, where friends are few as relationships didn’t turn out the
way they expected, and one has had to navigate their way through an unpleasant
divorce while sharing the job of raising children. Sexual relations have imploded, where marriage
seems to be a place where sex literally goes to die, and there’s plenty of
bitter sarcasm in its place. Throughout
these mainstream perceptions that are fodder for any number of television shows
and movies, this well written but overly conventional film doesn’t really reach
for more, but settles for easy going laughs, a few moments of comic wit, and
plenty of awkward sequences that are meant to show how relentlessly unforgiving
people can be, especially at middle age when they have been through all this
before, and the idea of being undermined or hurt again simply doesn’t sit well
as one’s idea of a healthy relationship.
Due to the quality of the performances, even when underwritten, the
actors carry it off, especially Gandolfini and Louis-Dreyfus, as their screen
presence is so appealing. It
does feel bittersweet seeing someone's last and final performance,
especially one where the actor seems so perfectly comfortable in the role,
which adds a heightened poignancy to his character, as in every screen or
theatrical performance, whether full throttle male macho or the most tender
moments, Gandolfini exhibits an indomitable spirit that leaves the audience
wishing for more.
