Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as Eva, a massage therapist and single mom whose daughter is about to go off to college.  Eva is at a cross-roads in her life when she attends a friend’s party and meets two new people who become an important part of her life.  Marianne (played by the always awesome Catherine Keener) is  someone Eva looks up to.  She’s creative, beautiful, successful and a bit of a free spirit.  Albert (played brilliantly by the late James Gandolfini) is someone Eva thought she’d never be attracted to, yet she is won over by his honesty, humor and charm.

As Eva’s friendship with Marianne grows, and her romance with Albert blossoms, she discovers that the obnoxious “ex” that Marianne is always complaining about is Eva’s new beau Albert.

Lots of great awkward situations that lead to relatable laughter.

Kudos to writer/director Nicole Holofcener. Beautiful, meaningful, touching film.

Elysium starts off all right – it’s clearly sci-fi, and futuristic.  It’s the world after we’ve basically overpopulated it and let it all fall apart – it’s unsafe, dirty, falling apart.  And then there’s Elysium, where all the super rich people took off to and escaped.  It’s this Utopia that the earth people only dream of.

So Matt Damon looks up to the sky at this Elysium ever since he is a little boy in an orphanage in Mexico.  Even though he’s been a car thief and a criminal, we can tell he’s really a good guy who just got a bad break.  He’s trying to get his act together and save money to get a golden ticket that will smuggle him into Elysium.

Of course, his plans go awry, and the earth is messed up, and it turns out Elysium isn’t that Utopian after all.  But by that time, this movie that clearly had potential to make a statement has turned into a sort of “Transformers” brawl.  And it just gets more ridiculous.  I’m surprised Jodie Foster got through her part as the villain with a straight face.

This is a story about family, and it’s also a love story – and a story about choices, and life choices. These characters could be any age – we can all relate to their struggles and desires.

Such a treat!

Jennifer Garner, of TV’s “Alias” plays Elektra. She’s a troubled soul, with a shady past, a dark back-story typical of this genre. We first saw this character in another Marvel film, “Daredevil.” She supposedly died, but guess what? She was brought back to life by her Ninja Sensei! Elektra is beautiful (of course) and lives by her own code of conduct, trying to find her own way. She doesn’t fit in to “standard” society – and she doesn’t much mind given her OCD and other quirks. Yet she is emotionally caught off guard when she meets a handsome widower (Goran Visjnic) and his teenage daughter. The relationship that Elektra develops with this family helps her to work out some of her own demons and she ends up fighting some mighty nasty bad-guys in the process.

The special effects are pretty interesting. One of the bad guys has tattoos that comes to life; haven’t seen that one before! And oh, that fiery red costume – a girl can really kick some butt in that outfit!

If this movie does well, expect to see some sequels. I think we’ve seen the last of Ben Affleck’s “Daredevil” but with some decent box office returns, Elektra will live on!