Enough (2002)

66262

“Enough” takes a serious and tragic topic like domestic abuse and exploits it, making idea of the crime something commercial with a very Hollywood narrative. I dare you to count the bruises and wounds inflicted on Lopez’s character and then add it to the years she suffered from the abuse, and it never quite adds up. Jennifer Lopez hams it up big time as protagonist and “heroine” Slim, attempting to depict the character as vulnerable, and even cuts her hair in a straight mop top to look like an average woman, when really it looks like a wig.

The movie also uses ridiculous plot devices and far-fetched scenes, for example when she makes a Rube Goldbergian booby trap on one of her “safe houses” that help her know when her husband is near. In “Enough,” Slim also manages to meet some kind of agent who helps her to fight back against her husband by using an astoundingly uncanny body double, tricks in booby trapping his house, and she also manages to conveniently learn Israeli army self-defense methods in a process comprised of only two scenes. The character Slim, is not a particularly smart character, either. Rather than complain to the police, file reports, record his threats, or taking pictures of the wounds for evidence of the abuse, she mildly complains and runs away only to be caught yet again.

Juliette Lewis is wasted as her character witnesses the abuse, and just stands around popping in and out of the movie without any real reason to be there. “Enough” has a strong “female empowerment” tone in this but just goes about it poorly, transforming every move each character makes seem absurd. Bill Campbell tries really hard to seem menacing and scary when really, he comes off as a comic book villain, scowling and sneering at every part of the movie. At times he seems more like a cliché abusive husband than a real character. A lot of the movie is just filler for the lead-up to the climactic fight between the two, which the ads were based around. The fight itself, I’ll admit, is pretty cool, but fails to deliver any true impact thanks to terrible dialogue. “Enough” is just sensationalism; it’s far-fetched, downright exploitative.