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Enough
*1/2
Cinema Releases - November 29, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. USA.
115 minutes. Directed by Michael Apted. Written by Nicholas Kazan. Starring
Jennifer Lopez, Bill Campbell, Tessa Allen, Juliette Lewis, Dan Futterman,
Noah Wyle, Fred Ward, Janet Carroll, Bill Cobbs, Christopher
Mayer.
I could pretend to be offended by the fact that
"Enough" builds to a rabble-rousing conclusion of sick vigilante
violence, but really, it's just sad. Michael Apted continues to direct the
"7-Up" series of documentaries, in which a cross-section of British children
who were interviewed in the 1950s are revisited every seven years and asked
about the flow of their lives. Nicholas Kazan wrote "Reversal of Fortune",
that brilliantly constructed and viciously witty study of the Claus von Bulow
appeal. These are some of the finest films I have seen. If the people involved
want to sell bits of soul for the little money that trash like "Enough" will
make, all I can do is shake my head and announce my
disappointment.
The movie stars Jennifer Lopez as Slim, a diner
waitress who falls for Mitch (Billy Campbell). She marries the guy, moves
into a beautiful home, lives the comfortable life and raises Gracie (Tessa
Allen), one of those cutesy Hollywood kids whose eyes are always darling
and whose voice squeaks most preciously. No movie called "Enough" would feature
the perfect husband and daughter unless something were about to go wrong,
and indeed it does: In the tradition of "Sleeping with the Enemy" and "Double
Jeopardy", Mitch turns out to be a cheatin', beatin' brute, who has an affair,
slaps his wife around when she asks about it and deepens his tone of voice
to deliver such lines as, "I make the money, so I make the rules. I always
get what I want, and I still want you. Don't do anything you'll
regret."
Lopez goes on the run with her daughter, and the
evil husband, who seems to have convenient connections with every cop and
hired hood around, does a thorough job of tracking her down. There are scenes
in which Mitch himself goes on the road to confront Lopez, breaking out in
violence every time; he strikes her brutally, at one point even hits the
four-year old daughter, and it's lucky that Lopez has a Batman-style watch
spraying Mace, or else she wouldn't keep getting away, and Apted would be
left with a movie that didn't run for feature length.
In terms of the filmmaking, this stuff is pretty
well done. The construction of the picture is slickly manipulative, carefully
pacing the descent of the Campbell character into something monstrous. Lopez,
who can sometimes come off like a career-obsessed product in her careful
PR, shows what a good actress she is: She's unadorned, heartfelt and convincing
as a working woman who gets in over her head and panics when trying to convert
her strength of character into dealing with an abusive situation. Even in
the most preposterous scenes, she seems to be feeling, not
performing.
But I could still find myself resisting "Enough".
For one, it does too obvious a job of retreading those other wife-in-peril
pictures. It also makes obvious that we're working to a conclusion of violent
revenge, as the villain becomes more hateful and the screenplay isolates
the heroine by cutting off such options as calling the cops or going to lawyers.
Sure enough, Lopez ends up visiting a personal trainer, learning some bizarre
combination of meditation and whup-ass, and breaking into Campbell's house
so she can lure him into a frenzy and kick him unto death.
This is the kind of movie that exists for one
final bloodbath, where the goodie indulges in torture, and we're supposed
to sit there hooting and cheering because the bad guy is getting his dues.
Twisted violence can be fun at the movies -- only this weekend did I have
another look at "Die Hard", and once again enjoy seeing McClane let Hans
fall from Nakatomi Plaza. But movies that use it as the solution for personal
confrontation get me feeling indignant, because it's no longer action and
more like sadism.
"Enough" did not offend me, but we can be more
than a little discomforted that Apted and Kazan not only hopped on board
to pay their bills, but utilised the power of their talents to try and make
it effective. This is a pathetic exploitation film that tries to seem sincere,
and just seems worse for the effort.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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