Plot: Divorced Eva is a Los Angeles based masseuse, whose only child, teenager Ellen, is going away to college, Sarah Lawrence, in the fall, leaving Eva as an empty nester. As such, Eva slowly turns her motherly focus to Ellen's best friend, Chloe, without even realizing it. Not one for confrontation, Eva quietly accepts certain foibles of her clients without dealing with them as issues, such as Martin with halitosis, constant chatterbox Cynthia who Eva just tunes out, and young Hal who never offers to carry Eva's heavy and bulky massage table up his long and steep front set of stairs, but who she in turn never asks. Accompanying her married couple friends Sarah and Will to a party where she knows no one, Eva meets divorced Marianne, a poet, who hires Eva to be her masseuse. That professional relationship turns to friendship as both Eva and Marianne are looking for single friends who they can unburden themselves, mostly about their love lives and the disasters that were their first marriages. Also at that party, Eva meets divorced father, Albert, who, like Eva, will soon be an empty nester as Albert's daughter Tess is also going away to school back east in the fall. Despite the two of them indirectly stating at that party that they are not attracted to each other, Albert asks for Eva's number which leads to a date. That date slowly leads to a relationship which looks like it could be the second chance for both in terms of a loving committed relationship. With her relationships with Marianne and Albert on firm ground, Eva learns indirectly that Albert is Marianne's ex-husband, the man who Marianne has bad-mouthed time and time again in her and Eva's private conversations. Rather than confront the coincidence head on, Eva decides to remain silent about her finding to both Marianne and Albert. The subsequent private conversations that Eva has with Marianne and Albert could taint her feelings about the other. But if Marianne and/or Albert were to find out that Eva knew the situation without telling them, it could ruin the relationships Eva so needs at this crucial time in her life.
Alternative Plot: Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a divorced single parent, seems generally happy but dreads her daughter's departure for college. Unexpectedly, Eva begins a romance with Albert (James Gandolfini), a nice man with whom she has much in common. Meanwhile, Eva finds a new friend in Marianne (Catherine Keener), a poet who is just about perfect except for one thing: She constantly denigrates her ex-husband -- Albert. The more Eva hears, the more she doubts her relationship with him.
Rate this movie!