|
Cast:
| Jennifer Lopez (Slim) |
Billy Campbell (Mitch) |
Juliette Lewis (Ginny) |
Dan Futterman (Joe) |
| Fred Ward (Jupiter) |
Bill Cobbs (Jim Toller) |
Tessa Allen (Gracie) |
Noah Wyle (Robbie Hero) |
| Christopher Maher (Phil) |
Jennifer Lopez works as a waitress at a diner and has a nametag that says "Slim", a nickname. She meets her future husband (Billy Campbell) at the diner when he rescues her from a womanizer who attempts to pick her up using a cheap gimmick. In a flash (in the movie, that is), Lopez and Campbell are married and everything is fine for a few years and they even have a cute daughter Gracie (Tessa Allen). Then Lopez discovers that Billy is a womanizer and tries to confront him with the truth. To her shock, he dismisses her contemptuously and warns her not to walk out on him. After a couple of bashings, Lopez manages to walk out with the help of her adopted father and friends. Billy makes her life miserable as he keeps following her (and having her followed) and threatening her. Finally, threatened with losing the custody of her daughter, Lopez decides to fight back. And fight back she does, with a
vengeance and wins.
Review:
The movie has a precedent (Sleeping with the Enemy). And there have been other movies of this genre (i.e., woman triumphing under adversity) like "Panic Room" (Jodie Foster, Forrest Whitaker) of this year and "Visiting Hours" (Linda Purl, Michael Ironside). "Enough" is definitely a more engaging film than most others of the same ilk. Jennifer Lopez, the button-nosed heroine has done a very effective job as the woman who is first vulnerable and then fiercely determined to protect the one whom she loves, her daughter. Despite the many
clichés in this movie, there are definitely many moments when you are gripped by tension. Lopez has the potential to become one of the better actresses in Hollywood, but it is too early of course to say based on just one film.
Billy Campbell is effective as the arrogant husband who goes to any extent to protect his ego. Tessa Allen as Gracie, the cute daughter, is very good actually. She delivers some of the best moments in the movie, only because she does not become sickeningly maudlin or cutesy. She is a natural Perhaps another Drew Barrymore (remember E.T.?) in the making. Juliette Lewis as Ginny has more than justified her presence.
It is to the director, Michael Apted, that the credit belongs for doing such a good job of making the movie despite some of the most ridiculous flaws in the script and screenplay. Here is also a movie where once again, you feel a sick satisfaction at the sight of a man being killed. Then again, the movie reflects what is actually happening. Wife-abuse is not a new thing, neither in US, nor in India. And you are perversely happy at the end. The credit for that definitely goes to Apted and Lopez. The movie rises above the pedestrian because of them.
Final Score: Two stars out of four.
Sam Walker (from Detroit)
published on 18th
June 2002
|
|