ENOUGH



Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:54 - Released 5/24/02



Much has been made of Jennifer Lopez's status as a "triple threat." At first a dancer who got her break as one of the Fly Girls on the TV sketch show In Living Color, Lopez has carved out a niche for herself in films, TV, and music, moving through the ranks to become a megastar in recording and a Hollywood fixture. But of her acting abilities...let's just say she shouldn't quit her day job. Of course, it doesn't help that she keeps getting involved in awful movies. I enjoyed The Cell, more because of the special effects than J-Lo, but The Wedding Planner and Angel Eyes were utter trash, and I'm sorry to say that Enough, written by Nicholas Kazan and directed by Michael Apted, isn't much better. The story of an abused wife who finally has to take matters into her own hands, it draws from a script with all the symptoms of a frontal lobotomy, and Lopez doesn't do much to compensate for that.

The first part of this film involves how "Slim" (Lopez) and her wealthy, arrogant, future-ex-husband Mitch (Bill Campbell) first meet. Writer Kazan (son of famous and controversial director Elia Kazan) chose to include this opening in order to introduce a character played by ER's Noah Wyle who reappears later, but this choice really shoots itself in the foot, because it comes off rushed and oversimplified. Rather than just beginning the story with Slim and Mitch as an already married couple, we have to go through their courtship, marriage, and the birth of their daughter, which is done in about 10 minutes with all the tenderness of a rectal exam. Suddenly they're a family with a beautiful home and a 6-year-old daughter named Gracie (Tessa Allen), and there's trouble: Mitch, who has proven that he's used to getting what he wants, is having an affair with a French woman named Darcelle. I knew something was wrong when he refused Slim's offer to join him in the shower. Never, EVER refuse Jennifer Lopez when she offers to join you in the shower. When Slim finds out about the affair, Mitch apologizes, but doesn't even offer to break it off, stating that since he earns the money, he makes the rules. "I'm a man," he explains, indicating in three little words the entire film's unpretentiously male-bashing chick-flick mentality.

When Slim argues, Mitch punches her out. When she complains about being punched out, he punches her out. And when she tries to leave the house, enlisting the aid of some friends, like former co-worker Ginny (Juliette Lewis), guess what happens. He punches her out and threatens to shoot her friends. But she does finally get away, and so begins an occasionally eerie but mostly predictable cat-and-mouse-and-red-herring game in which he traces her credit card transactions, freezes her accounts, and hires his old pal Noah Wyle (remember him?) to follow her. Eventually, after ascertaining that she can't combat her husband's abuses by conventional means, she takes boxing lessons, learns to jaywalk, and prepares to meet him fist-to-face.

This movie suffers from idiotic dialogue, ridiculous situations, and unbelievable characterizations throughout. When it is not overtly brain-dead, it's just plain boring, with too many plot detours, road trips, and hairstyle changes for its own good. And those annoying title cards are something else. In between all the stupid car chases, stupid fight scenes, and stupid dialogue, director Apted gives us these little clichéd silent-movie-style cards that flash on the screen with helpful notices like "Get out of there." Lopez, Campbell, and Lewis are not so terrible that they should bear all the blame for this film's substandard quality. But they're Enough.


Copyright 2002 by John R. McEwen and The Republican

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