This post contains no breaking news flash, as if any of my knitting posts ever would, but I just watched the movie, Enough Said released in 2013 with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini. I was in the mood for a rom-com, and wanted to watch Gandolfini in one of his last roles. (He died last year on June 19.) Additionally, although it was not a huge commercial success, the movie seems to consistently be critically acclaimed by movie reviewers.
To my delight this movie didn't use the typical romantic comedy formula: girl/woman mets boy/man, there's an attraction, a misunderstanding happens, girl/woman and boy/man part ways, in the end they find one another, clear up the misunderstanding and true love breaks out. There are of course elements of this formula in this movie, it is a rom-com, but the story is about adults both divorced with daughters preparing to move away to attend university. From my point of view it was a more sophisticated and complicated story line than most of this type written about teenagers or young adults.
Gandolfini played a completely different character from his career making Tony Soprano in the HBO series The Sopranos. In this movie his character, Albert, is a television archivist who is sensitive, self-aware and kind. Louis-Dreyfus plays, Eva, a rather selfish, weight-averse massage therapist who knits. (Ah, you knew there had to be a knitting connection.) Compared to the usual very well scripted movie conversations these characters struggle to communicate what they want to say, something rather refreshing and like real life. Enough with the review ~~
I had to check out the knitting. In an AXS Entertainment interview Louis-Dreyfus was asked about the knitting. This is what was reported:
Q: Did you have to learn to knit too? How is your knitting?
To my delight this movie didn't use the typical romantic comedy formula: girl/woman mets boy/man, there's an attraction, a misunderstanding happens, girl/woman and boy/man part ways, in the end they find one another, clear up the misunderstanding and true love breaks out. There are of course elements of this formula in this movie, it is a rom-com, but the story is about adults both divorced with daughters preparing to move away to attend university. From my point of view it was a more sophisticated and complicated story line than most of this type written about teenagers or young adults.
Gandolfini played a completely different character from his career making Tony Soprano in the HBO series The Sopranos. In this movie his character, Albert, is a television archivist who is sensitive, self-aware and kind. Louis-Dreyfus plays, Eva, a rather selfish, weight-averse massage therapist who knits. (Ah, you knew there had to be a knitting connection.) Compared to the usual very well scripted movie conversations these characters struggle to communicate what they want to say, something rather refreshing and like real life. Enough with the review ~~
I had to check out the knitting. In an AXS Entertainment interview Louis-Dreyfus was asked about the knitting. This is what was reported:
Q: Did you have to learn to knit too? How is your knitting?
Louis-Dreyfus: Actually I do knit. I’m a terrible knitter but I adore knitting. Knitting was a lovely thing to be able to do. It was written (in the script) but I do knit.
Louis-Dreyfus' character has been knitting a bright yellow afghan for her daughter for nearly 13 years. The pattern used in the afghan is a simple garter stitch which would suit a beginning knitter but should not take any knitter 13 years to complete whatever their skill set. As for Louis-Dreyfus knitting skills, she does look like a beginning knitter consistent with the character.
This long-term knitting project seems to me to be a metaphor for her relationship with her maturing daughter. Eva is struggling to accept the empty-nest syndrome she has looming over her for much of the movie. Perhaps putting off finishing the afghan mirrors her putting off understanding the fact her daughter is maturing. In the end, the afghan is finished, again symbolizing for me Eva's coming to grips with this very familiar dynamic.
The photo above is from a scene where Louis-Dreyfus is out shopping for dresses with her daughter, and her daughter's friend and her mother. The other mother comes out of a dressing room wearing the same dress as her daughter. Eva sits there knitting, wearing her cropped pants and hiking sandals. Perhaps all this is meant to emphasize how middle-aged Eva is and how out of touch she is with fashion and youth culture. Or perhaps it is meant to show two distinct ways for a mother to raise a daughter. One is to be the domestic adult and the other, to be the peer-like buddy.
The final knitting connection in this movie is the stockinette headboard on Eva's bed. See it below in a rather unusual scene as the two characters check out the inside of each other's mouths.
I found this movie very enjoyable. From my POV it is worth a look if you are in the mood for a rom-com. And the knitting references, they were a pleasant and an unexpected addition for me.
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| Eva knitting with her daughter |
Louis-Dreyfus' character has been knitting a bright yellow afghan for her daughter for nearly 13 years. The pattern used in the afghan is a simple garter stitch which would suit a beginning knitter but should not take any knitter 13 years to complete whatever their skill set. As for Louis-Dreyfus knitting skills, she does look like a beginning knitter consistent with the character.
This long-term knitting project seems to me to be a metaphor for her relationship with her maturing daughter. Eva is struggling to accept the empty-nest syndrome she has looming over her for much of the movie. Perhaps putting off finishing the afghan mirrors her putting off understanding the fact her daughter is maturing. In the end, the afghan is finished, again symbolizing for me Eva's coming to grips with this very familiar dynamic.
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| Eva knitting in public at a dress shop |
The photo above is from a scene where Louis-Dreyfus is out shopping for dresses with her daughter, and her daughter's friend and her mother. The other mother comes out of a dressing room wearing the same dress as her daughter. Eva sits there knitting, wearing her cropped pants and hiking sandals. Perhaps all this is meant to emphasize how middle-aged Eva is and how out of touch she is with fashion and youth culture. Or perhaps it is meant to show two distinct ways for a mother to raise a daughter. One is to be the domestic adult and the other, to be the peer-like buddy.
The final knitting connection in this movie is the stockinette headboard on Eva's bed. See it below in a rather unusual scene as the two characters check out the inside of each other's mouths.
I found this movie very enjoyable. From my POV it is worth a look if you are in the mood for a rom-com. And the knitting references, they were a pleasant and an unexpected addition for me.
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