Enough
A domestic-abuse drama that makes Sleeping With The Enemy look like the height of neo-realistic understatement, Michael Apted's Enough opens with a sequence that establishes a level of phoniness and manipulation it maintains until its final frame. Wisecracking hash-house waitress Jennifer Lopez is hit on by rose-toting would-be lothario Noah Wyle. Before Lopez can submit to his charms, however, handsome Billy Campbell steps forward with the information that Wyle is a fraud who has wagered a buddy that he can bed Lopez. Playing the role of the gallant gentleman, the wealthy, conniving Campbell lets Wyle know in no uncertain terms that he's not wanted, and Campbell's suspicious gesture so touches Lopez that she marries him in the next scene. Several Kodak moments later, however, the couple's dream home has yielded nothing but heartache, as Campbell casually informs Lopez that regular beatings and constant infidelity are the price of marrying a wealthy, handsome man. Terrified, Lopez flees with her daughter, but soon learns that Campbell has an almost superhuman ability to reach her wherever she goes. Enough begins like a Nora Ephron knockoff, complete with cutesy inter-titles and lame banter between Lopez and fellow waitress Juliette Lewis. Somewhere along the way, however, it morphs into an insultingly manipulative drama riddled with as many plot holes as moments of unintentional laughter. By the time it's over, Enough has made a final transformation into a revenge thriller for people who found the Death Wish movies too subtle and ambiguous. It's hard to know exactly where to begin criticizing a film so riddled with miscalculations, but miscasting plays a major role in Enough's downfall. Lopez has done good work in some bad films (Angel Eyes, The Cell), but here, she sinks to the subterranean level of her material. There's plenty of blame to be spread around, however, with much of it going to Lopez's screen daughter, Tessa Allen, a gratingly precious tot who seems to be bucking for the title of Most Annoying Child Actor Ever. And Campbell turns Lopez's abuser into such a hateful monster that it's hard to imagine what she ever saw in him. In one respect at least, the film's idiocy works for Lopez: Every diva needs at least one camp classic on her résumé, and with Enough, she's scored a howler on the level of Mommie Dearest.