ENOUGH SAID (PG-13) Middle-aged adults rarely get any love when it comes to contemporary romantic comedies. Hit 40 and watch the storylines cater to younger and younger people. In director/writer Nicole Holofcener's latest feature, Enough Said, she again focuses on the emotional travails of affluent white people up in age. Initially, there's a strong urge to yell back at the screen, "white people problems," as comedian Louis CK once labeled it in a comedy routine. However, by the time the brisk, amiable comedy-drama has ended, we're left with feelings of uncertainty mingled with compassion. Enough Said may be filled with characters that many of us will find alien and difficult to identify with on the surface, but the emotional terrain that they journey through is familiar and sometimes refreshingly awkward.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays single mom Eva, a much-in-demand masseuse in Los Angeles, trying to prepare for her teenage daughter's (Tracey Fairaway) eminent departure to a university while also navigating through the wilds of romance. While attending a swanky, upscale party, she meets poet Marianne (Catherine Keener) and the two hit it off. Eva also meets the heavy-set and slovenly single man Albert (James Gandolfini). In an amusing scene, Eva and Albert both profess to not being interested in anyone at the party, but there is a slight spark between them and they eventually go out on a date. The night out goes well, until the end when Albert attempts to land a kiss on her (a wonderfully awkward scene). But their relationship tentatively blooms, nevertheless, until Eva learns of a big revelation about her new boyfriend and his ex-wife. Eva starts to doubt her own heart, and the romance corrodes. 

So much of Enough Said is downright predictable and written with the sort of suffocating exactitude that used to be the hallmark of the majority of television movies and narrative series, before the influence of cinema entrenched itself over the last decade. But what makes the movie click, what generates that much-needed dramatic urgency, are the performances. Louis-Dreyfus has long been a unique comedic treasure and continues to be one here, conjuring up anxiety and natural silliness as well as any of the great funny women ever have. Gandolfini, who died earlier this year, plays against his usual menacing type and delivers a quietly affecting and wonderful performance. Despite Holofcener's perfunctory directing, there are still plenty of genuine moments to savor in Enough Said.