An Unsentimental Education
Written by Julie Wolf | Posted by: Anonymous
Tom Keenan’s "Enough Already" has a sitcom sensibility not often seen in independent films. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. What could be more independent than an indie film that dares to stray from "traditional" indie fare? Though the Massachusetts filmmaker borrows a scene from "Reservoir Dogs," the similarities to anything Quentin Tarantino ends there. There is no hail of gunfire in the final scene; no quirky, "meta" chitchat about filmmaking; and not once does heroin make an appearance in this light romantic comedy.
The drug of choice is beer, because "Enough Already" is a college movie. You needn’t be a motorcycle-riding 21-year-old economics major with a future on Wall Street to recognize the fabled "college experience" here. Cam (David Wheir) shares a house with an indeterminate number of roommates more interested in drinking than academics, but he is different from his maturity-challenged peers: he studies, or tries to; has aspirations, or seems to.
Most different of all, though, Cam has a girlfriend. It’s this girlfriend, and not the encroaching real world, which causes him the greatest stress. Better dressed than any college student in history, Val (Alanna Ubach) is determined to marry Cam, because she believes he is destined to make a fortune, and will therefore support a wife with expensive tastes.
Her plan has a wrinkle in it, though, which Val isn’t privy to: Cam hates Val and is desperate to dump her. Or so he tells his bathroom mirror (Travis Bickle, anyone?). Naturally, Cam, convinced of his own sensitivity while calling his girlfriend a bitch behind her back, hopes to "minimize the pain," and therefore cannot find the right time to end the relationship. Whether it’s her pain or his is up for grabs. Therein lies the tension in "Enough Already."
As Cam, David Wheir calls to mind Leonardo DiCaprio (while he’s sleeping), Luke Perry (when he dons a baseball cap), and Brad Pitt (in general). But more important than who he resembles as an actor, Wheir can actually act. When Cam throws himself on his bed, roommates’ stereo pounding and a big fat textbook open on his desk, his stress is palpable. Cam’s conflicts are more wittily scripted than most college seniors’, but Wheir imbues him with a believability and appeal that draws a viewer in.
"Enough Already" does periodically succumb to pitfalls that have plagued other, bigger-budget comedies. Writer/producer/director Keenan’s sympathies obviously lie with Cam, and he doesn’t paint anyone else with the same generous strokes. As a result, the film is populated with caricatures, not characters, its greatest victim being Val. Don’t get me wrong–caricature can work. Case in point: campus recruiter Joel Weinstein (Paul Wagner). His exceptional portrayal of the Wall Street representative is a hilarious send-up of corporate America. But Poor Val is simply too one-dimensional when you consider how vital she is to the film, the catalyst for all Cam’s decisions. Whether it’s the script or Alanna Ubach’s over-the-top performance (I tend to think it’s a little of both), Val at times repels the viewer. She wants to get married come hell or high water, and en route to her goal, she becomes merely a laughingstock, devouring pints of Ben & Jerry’s, sniffing her armpits, and contorting her face into grotesque shapes when she doesn’t get what she wants.
Ubach, who also played a fiancée in the office comedy "Clockwatchers," proves she is capable of breathing real life into Val when she introduces Cam to her parents over dinner. Here, Ubach deftly reveals a poor, sympathetic little rich girl desperate to please her alcoholic mother and crass but financially successful father. I would have liked to see more scenes like this one, where Keenan and his actors attack serious matters through comedy without losing the comic edge.
But one person’s sacrifice is another person’s ironic distance, and after all, ironic distance is what the ’90s are all about. A strange hybrid of a decade, the ’90s have tried desperately to bring back the ’60s and ’70s in spirit; but, with the spectre of the money-loving ’80s still looming large, only the fashions have returned. "Enough Already" relies heavily on this very ’90s conflict between materialism and personal growth. While Keenan’s debut hasn’t yet achieved the status of "The Graduate" and "Animal House," the three might make an interesting trinity of rentals. Each represents a particular generation of college students, true to the decade in which it was made.
