Tonight Columbia had a screening of the new Jennifer Lopez thriller Enough. Jennifer Lopez stars as a working-class waitress named Slim who falls for a wealthy construction contractor who sweeps her off her feet, but whose abusive behavior years into the marriage forces Slim to flee with their five-year old daughter Gracie. With Mitch and his henchmen and other contacts in high places in pursuit, Slim is forced to put Gracie in safe-keeping and toughen herself up mentally and physically to confront Mitch. The movie costars Billy Campbell from TV’s Once and Again, Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear, Natural Born Killers), ER’s Noah Wyle, and Fred Ward.

There are some concepts that are either so limited in their scope or have done so many times (Enough qualifies on both counts} that the only way to elevate it is to either approach it with a new angle, perspective, wrinkle or theme, or to execute it with writing, directing or star power that imbues the concept with more depth or class. A good past example would be all those movies during 1987 and 88 about two people of disparate ages who switch places—Like Father Like Son, 18 Again!, Vice Versa, and Big. All had the same concept. Not all of them were as touching or well-acted as Big.

If you’re going to do a "Woman in Jeopardy" picture—a concept that has a built-in cheese factor, and has been done to death in TV movies of the week, you better have something new or fresh or distinctive in it that gives me a reason to go. Maybe you can introduce a new gimmick or MacGuffin into it. Maybe you can get the guy who wrote Jurassic Park, Carlito’s Way and the upcoming Spider-Man to write the screenplay. Maybe you can get the guy who directed Seven, The Game, and Fight Club to direct it. Perhaps get someone like Jodie Foster to star in it. Well, someone did all those things in a recent movie, which is why I went to go see Panic Room.

The alternative is to follow the "It’s about the how, not the what" philosophy, and entertain the audience with the tried and true stunts, the cliched "non-surprises," and the occasional jokes peppered in the film. We pretty much know that the heroine will be okay at the movie’s end, and the villain will most likely die, so it’s pretty much a matter of sitting back and seeing exactly how it gets from that point A to point B, seeing which supporting characters die, etc.

Enough takes that latter approach. Writer and Director team Nicholas Kazan and Michael Apted certainly have a resume of movies that have achieved at least a moderate level of either critical or box-office success (The World is Not Enough, Nell, Blink, Thunderheart, Class Action, Gorillas in the Mist, Coal Miner’s Daughter), but when a singer like Jennifer Lopez, who hasn’t garnered any widespread acclaim as an actress, and hasn’t paid her dues by starting out in smaller parts in movies where she can get noticed as a talented actor, wants to get starring roles, she’s going to get mediocre scripts that are either tailor-made for her, or rejected by more respected actresses, which is what her last few movies seem to me to have been, and what Enough seems to be.

Interestingly, at the end of the screening, before I called my boss to report the audience reaction to him, I asked critic Joel Siegel, who was in attendance, what he thought, thinking my boss might be interested in his thoughts on the film, and Siegel replied with the non-commital but jovial, "Well, you were there, right? You saw the same thing I did, right?" A woman in wheelchair later told me that she asked him the same thing, and he replied that he liked it, and was surprised at how good an actress Jennifer Lopez is becoming. (I’m guessing he knew I was working the screening and didn’t want to leak his opinion to the studio.) In stark contrast, my friend Nick, who is extremely critical and picky with his films, and who sat next to me during the screening, said he thought Jennifer Lopez is a lousy actress, and didn’t care for her performance in the film.

In my opinion, Enough is an adequate popcorn movie. We are shocked by Mitch’s abusive behavior towards Slim. (While I’m not familiar with Billy Campbell’s work on Once and Again, the stark contrast his Okona in The Outrageous Okona(TNG) and here is certainly unsettling. Slim’s five-year old daughter Gracie is cute, the tense sequences where Slim is constantly forced to escape Mitch and his henchmen and move somewhere else with Gracie are moderately suspenseful, and there is an interesting twist in the middle of the film where a character pops up that we weren’t expecting, who helps Mitch find Slim. Although just about all "Woman in Jeopardy" films feature the heroine turning the tables on the villain, I think Enough may be the only one I can remember in which this aspect of the film places so much on the physical, in that Slim goes to a self-defense teacher who teaches her Krav Maga, the Israeli self-defense technique taught to all members of its military. (It isn’t so named in the film but was reported by Army Archerd in Variety.) While it certainly is entertaining to watch her train and kick butt, and Krav Maga is certainly an organic and pragmatic-looking technique that can be taught in a shorter length of time than disciplines that emphasize flying kicks or weapons like Tae Kwon Do, this aspect of the concept may be a bit cheesy, and I also question whether it’s possible for Slim to adequately train herself to beat up Mitch in a month.

Of course, this is not to say that Slim doesn’t also use her head in preparing for the final confrontation with Mitch, and in a sequence that actually got way more applause than the end of the movie SLIGHT SPOILER WARNING:, Slim arranges the setting of the confrontation place so as to place Mitch at a disadvantage. END SPOILER WARNING.

Bottom line: If you’re the kind of person who’s easily satisfied, and doesn’t demand that much in the way of originality, and like to zone out with a date and popcorn for two hours, you should like Enough. If you’re a bit more demanding, and like A-list actors and creators who are a bit more innovative or stylish with their material, go see Panic Room.

NITS
I didn’t notice this, but after Slim goes to pick up Gracie, and a teacher tells her Mitch already picked her up, Slim rushes home, and as her car pulls up to the house, my friend Nick pointed out to me that her car had no license plate.

Excuse me, but is there some growing trend regarding "Woman in Jeopardy" movies and the sounds of urination? In both Panic Room and this movie, we are treated to the heroine sitting on the throne, and the painfully detailed sounds of them relieving themselves. What next? Anthony Hopkins delighting us with the sound of him pushing out a turd in the next Adam Sandler movie? Just show her character on the crapper if you must. Hell, you can just show me the character going into a room with tile flooring. I CAN FIGURE IT OUT MYSELF WITHOUT SOUND EFFECTS.

Okay, so this Mitch guy is a few french fries shy of a Happy Meal. By his own admission, he’s a "determined" guy who always gets what he wants. When he calls Slim at her motel room and indicates he is close by and knows where she is, Slim flees with Gracie out the rear patio, locking the glass doors from outside while Mitch breaks through the front door. As Slim flees down the rear stairs, Mitch goes up to the glass patio doors, can’t open it, and turns around to go back out the door and around the motel. Huh? First of all, why is the door designed to be locked from the outside. Second, why doesn’t Mitch just break through the glass?

SLIGHT SPOILER WARNING:
Slim goes to her father, a guy named Jupiter (Fred Ward), who up until now, has either never met her, or hasn’t seen her in many years. She tells him she’s his daughter, and asks for money to help escape Mitch. He is dismissive of her claim that she’s his daughter, and as an insult, gives her twelve dollars. She rips the necklace off her neck, gives it to him, and tells him that’s worth a lot more. Okay, now what think this was supposed to convey was that the necklace was something Jupiter was familiar with. Maybe it was her mother’s? Maybe Jupiter gave it to her, and that was Slim’s way of both proving to Jupiter she was his daughter, and returning his insult? But if it’s worth a lot more than twelve dollars, as she says, why in the WORLD is she just giving it away if she needs money? And to the guy who just insulted her and blew her off, no less! Sure, she’s proud and wants to tell him off, but if she’s so strapped for cash, shouldn’t she pawn it?
END SPOILER WARNING

As I pointed out above, I seriously question whether a person can adequately train herself in Krav Maga, or any martial art, to the point where she can kick her abusive husband’s butt in only a month.

I am VERY familiar with Billy Campbell's work on "Once And Again." I am a major fan of the (now cancelled) series and have participated in some of the recent "Save Our Show" activities that were to shame ABC into renewing it. Billy has been vastly underused this past season. However, his best work was done in a second season episode called "Won't Somebody Please Help George Bailey Tonight," where, like that famous character, he has hit bottom, personally and professionally.
From the way you described this, Luigi, it seems like this is a remake of the 1991 Julia Roberts pic "Sleeping With The Enemy", with the added tastelessness of putting a child in jeopardy at the hands of her own father, something that I think goes too far (although it happens all too often in real life.) I am a very undemanding viewer, particularly for a TV show or a movie I watch on cable. However, if I pay ten bucks for something, I want more than a warmed-over TV movie that I can catch on Lifetime almost any hour of the day.
There are some people that I wonder what all the fuss is about, and Jennifer Lopez is one of them. She is a one-note actress, a shrill singer, and a so-so dancer who likes to flaunt her assets to the fullest. She got down and dirty in "Anaconda", and looked like Selena in the stiff 1997 Warner biopic.
Maybe I will catch this on pay cable, but as far as laying out $10, I would rather see "The Rookie" (the Dennis Quaid baseball pic, not the Clint Eastwood/Charlie sheen buddy cop pic.)

More than one person at the screening remarked that it seemed like Sleeping With the Enemy, Adam.

Jennifer Lopez, who hasn’t garnered any widespread acclaim as an actress,

Um, what about Selena and Angel Eyes? Not commercial success I agree, but then again MOST of my favorite films were written off as flops.

I don't plan to see this for one good reason. I don't want to see The Rocketeer playing a wife-beater.

Selena may have been her breakout movie as a movie star perhaps, but not as an actor. The one review I remember about that movie was a negative one that opined that she didn't dive into the role and become the subject the way Angela Bassett did with Tina Turner in What's Love Got To Do With It.

Mind you, Brian, I'm merely talking about the response to her acting ability on the part of the entertainment community, not my own opinion of her abilities.

As for Angel Eyes, most critics panned it.

None of my regular critics panned it. Of course I tend to ignore 'professional' critics like Ebrt, Roper, Reed, et al. I tend to listen to those whose opinions matter to me, like my close friends.

But remember what the original quote from me was that you cited: That she hasn't garnered widespread acclaim as an actress, which is true.

Selena may have been her breakout movie as a movie star perhaps, but not as an actor.

Actually, IIRC she won a lot of critical acclaim for doing just what that one critic said she didn't, really effectively getting under the character's skin.
Of course, there's a big difference between tackling Selena's life story and Tina Turner's...

<returns from trip to rottentomatoes.com>

Uh-huh, yup, my memory doesn't deceive. From Roger Ebert:

The teenage and adult Selena is played by Lopez in a star-making performance..."Selena" succeeds, through Lopez's performance, in evoking the magic of a sweet and talented young woman.

And from James Bernardelli:

Jennifer Lopez is radiant as the title character, conveying the boundless energy and enthusiasm that exemplified Selena, while effectively copying not only her look, but her mannerisms. I wonder if Selena's family, upon watching this performance, felt an eerie sense of deja vu. It's apparent from the clips of the real performer shown at the movie's conclusion that Lopez has done a masterful job of re-creating a personality.

Oh, and Luigi, BTW:

Just show her character on the crapper if you must. Hell, you can just show me the character going into a room with tile flooring. I CAN FIGURE IT OUT MYSELF WITHOUT SOUND EFFECTS.

LOL! I so agree...

Thank you.

And while Jennifer Lopez may have gotten good reviews from some critics for Selena, her output as an actress as a whole has not been widely acclaimed, which is what I meant.

Btw, Noah Wyle and Billy Campbell were at tonight's screening. Some people in the back row (read: Wyle's people) whooped and cheered slightly when his character came on screen.

The subway ads are up, J-Lo's face stares at every station. I've already had "Enough."

Luigi: What about The Cell? She got some very good regards for that flick, which were well deserved I think. She was really good, and so were Vaughn and D'onofrio.

From the "Once And Again" fans e-mail circle that I belong to, it was said that the producers' first chioce for the husband was Dylan Mc Dermott, not Billy Campbell.

Brian Webber: What about The Cell? She got some very good regards for that flick.
Luigi Novi: I had a lot of trouble buying her as a psychologist in that movie, and so, from what I heard from more than one critic, did reviewers. Her performance, at the very least, was adequate,and I didn't care for the movie itself at all. With The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en, you have the definitive serial killer movies of recent times, and those are tough acts to measure up to, let alone surpass. The Cell offered nothing new, and seemed more concerned with art direction (and in that regard, it excelled), but nothing new in the way of story or theme. I also found the manner in which they set up the sci-fi premise of entering another's mind to have been unconvincingly done.

And frankly, Miss Lopez has not endeared herself to me. Yesterday I was going to simply do some last minute "day-of" passes for The Sum of All Fears at the Loews E-Walk (RIGHT NEXT to the Port Authority Bus Terminal where I arrive when I go to NYC, mind you), when at the last minute, a supervisor calls to tell me that Miss Lopez will be at the Enough screening yesterday, and that my boss wants extra personnel staffing, so I have to get dressed up again and go all the way to 3rd and 86th.

In the rain.

The movie was supposed to start at 7:00. Come 7 o'clock, she's not there, and someone tells me she's pulling her "diva sh*t." They postpone it 7:30, and announce to the entire audience at once that they're going to buy a small popcorn and soda for the audience--a total dumbass idea, given that they want to send them in rows, and no one listens to that, so it turns the concession area into a madhouse. 7:30 comes and passes, with no J.Lo in site. By the time she finally showed and the movie started, it was 7:45. Why they needed me, I don't know. She had at least four huge security guards there (and is there some reason why EVERY SINGLE ONE of them was bald?), what the hell did she need me for? We were only contracted to fill 100 seats, and there were a couple of dozen more left empty, so the line were we collected passes and handed out the tickets was hardly a rowdy one.

But Brian if you like her stuff, that's cool. Everyone has a right to their own opinion, buddy.

Hey, I was just defending her acting, not her personal life, singing, or anything else.

Keep that in mind!

BTW, how the hell do you get your job? If there's a branch in Denver (we might have one now with the new Starz Film Center where the Pan African Film Festival shows now) let me know. I am STILL unemployed and friggin' desperate.

Yeah, I know buddy.

I was at a screening for Phantoms at the theater in Secaucus where I used to work, asked one of the people working there (who is now my supervisor) how to work for them, he gave me the number to call, and I met with the owner of the co. in Paramus, NJ.

NRG (National Research Group), the parent company of MovieView, is based in L.A., and MovieView is the East Coast branch. I don't know if there are any branches in Denver, but I'll ask.

Out of Sight. Good movie. She and Clooney were both good in it. Almost forgot about that one, Brian. I wish she'd do more stuff like that.

Never saw it. But Ving Rhames is in it so it can't •••• 100%.

THE PREMIERE
I hadn't planned on posting for this movie again, but Mikey asked me to let him know how the premiere went, so...

The movie was supposed to start at 7:00pm. The diva, of course, couldn't be bothered to get there on time. By the time the show did start, it was about 7:45pm. She looked nice, though.

One of the people who showed up with one of my email passes was wearing a bandana and sandles. He was actually the son of one of the people on my list. I wanted to strangle him. Then, his mom and another guest showed up TWO HOURS LATE, and one of them was wearing jeans. I was trying to tell them there were no more tickets, but one of my coworkers interferred, putting a guilt trip on me, and said since one of us was ushering them up in groups, that we could vouch for them. Two others showed up with the passes I gave to a friend of mine who coudln't come, also two hours late. They all got in, but I think I lost about a billion or so brain cells tonight.

Adam Bomb came. I hope he liked it.

The funniest moment of the night came when I was guarding the revolving door on the side of the building, on 68th st. This is where our respondants were to be ushered in, whereas the studio and their guests were to use the front entrance with the red carpet. I had to tell the studio's guests who showed there to use the front entrance, and let only our staff and people going in to buy tickets to one of the regular movies. I had to ask these people what movie they were seeing, just to make sure they weren't just going in to gawk at Jennifer Lopez as she walked in.

I almost stopped Yoko Ono.
(Hey, am I good, or what?)

I also saw a prominent character actor. I don't remember his name, but he was the defense attorney in the episode of Law & Order featuring the fertility doctor who used his own sperm with his customers, which was based on the real-life case of Dr. Cecil Jacobsen.

Thanks for giving me the pass, Luigi. What I chalked up as a freebie movie turned out to be qiute memorable.
I was starting to get annoyed that the screening started so late; now I know why.
The movie was standard woman-in-jep-gets-revenge cheese, and the screening did not change my pre-viewing opinion posted above. As I am a "Once And Again" fan, I went to see it more for Billy Campbell than J-Lo. Billy's part was underwritten and one-dimensional, but he did the best he could with it. His character, Mitch, was a creep from the get-go, totally unlike his Rick from "O&A." A chronic liar and cheat, Mitch justifies his infidelities, basically saying "That's the way I am, so accept it."
Why didn't J-Lo's character have a real name? She was referred to only as "Slim."
I thought the use of title cards to bridge scenes was unnecessary.
Mitch puts his poor little girl, Gracie, in jeopardy not once but twice.

SPOILER WARNING
Also, Noah Wyle's character displays such anger toward Slim and Gracie in one particular car chase scene. Why such fury? They never did anything to him, especially the little girl.
SPOILER WARNING

Anyway, when the movie was over (I stayed until the end credits were done) I had to use the facility. As luck would have it, as I was going in, a tall man in a dark suit was going out. It was Billy Campbell! I asked to shake his hand and asked for an autograph. Luigi, he couldn't have been nicer. I told him how much I will miss "O&A" and he replied "No one will miss it more than I will." He was very patient with me, as I fumbled for something for him to sign. Mr. Campbell's accessability was in sharp contrast to J-Lo's diva-ness. I heard a lot of screaming girls, and I saw Miss Lopez surrounded by her entourage. She looked straight ahead and acknowledged no one. She went out the side door and was followed out by the people she refused to acknowledge in the theater. As it was getting late, and I had a long train ride ahead of me, I just left.
So, I met Billy Campbell, and my day was made. It was definitely worth missing the finale of "24" for - that's why we have VCR's. Thank you again, Luigi.

Any time, buddy. Though regarding your comment about the character who expresses anger towards Slim and Gracie, I would've put a spoiler warning around it, and Jake, I would suggest (with Adam's approval) that you add it after the fact.

I also felt the same way about those pretensious title cards, but didn't think of it until after I wrote my original review.

I realized later that I SHOULD have put "Spoiler Warning" in my post. Sorry about that.
Things I Liked about "Enough":
One of my favorite songs of the past few years, Sheryl Crow's "All I Wanna Do" plays over the opening title. In fact, songs by superior artists like Jewel and Aimee Mann are used throughout. Nice touch.
Mitch uses any language possible to justify his infidelity. As my (soon-to-be-ex) wife does the same thing, I found this aspect of the film dead-on.
The climatic scenes were suspenseful and generated a good amount of excitement. Slim is written as a woman who is very resourceful and covers all possiblities throughout.
Jake can add or change anything he sees fit; I give my OK. If there are any problems, e-mail me here.

J.Lo Sex Scene Cut

The sex scene was changed so (IMO) the pic could get a PG-13 rating and not shut out J-Lo's fan base of young girls, which would severely injure it at the box office.
Speaking of which, "Enough" did $19 million its first weekend in theaters. Very good, considering it was slaughtered by critics and was up against the brutal competition of "Spiderman" and "Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones."

Yeah, ya gotta get rid of the sex scene to get the PG-13 rating and keep the little girl fans.

Having Billy Campbell smack her, punch her, kick her, cheat on her, threatening to kill her and her family, Noah Wylie chasing after her in a car---yeah, that ya can keep in!

Ah, the MPAA. Guardians of social values.

"If you •••• on a tit in a movie, it gets an R rating. If you hack the tit off with an ax, it gets a PG-13 rating." --Jack Nicholson

Enough has been playing on HBO of late. The intimacy of the small screen makes Billy Campbell's Mitch into an even bigger creep than he appeared to be on the big screen.

Oh, BTW, the actress who plays Mitch's mother here (Janet Carroll) also played Tom Cruise's mom in Risky Business. Does this make their movie characters brothers?

I hope not. I rather see Jennifer Lopez in skimpy underwear than Billy Campbell.

Janet Carroll also played the off-the-wall mother of the equally psycho Dr. Kimberly Shaw (Marcia Cross, now one of the Desparate Housewives) on Melrose Place, one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

I found the DVD for this flick at the bargain bin ($5.50 per flick) of the Woodbridge, New Jersey Wal-Mart the other day. From a nice premiere, complete with the film's stars, down to late-night runs on TBS and TNT and the DVD's dumped in Wal-Mart's bargain bin, in less than five years. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Or, this is (I guess) the life-cycle of a movie now.

I wouldn't have paid even that much for it. Better for you to spend it on DVD's of Once and Again, perhaps?

just wait till it appears on google video or you tube or something...

A bit off-topic, but it concerns the star of this flick: (Plus, I've also posted this under the topic "Reality TV".)
J-Lo has landed a new reality show. TLC will follow the star around as she does business deals and cares for her new twins. More here.
What will TLC call the show anyway? Jen and Marc Plus Two? Her movie career must really be in the toilet for her to do a tacky reality show. Maybe she'll extoll her love of fur on the show, and anger PETA in the process. It's her attitude about fur that gets my animal-loving girlfriend really p.o.'ed (sorry, Sue.) Not to mention that J-Lo can barely act her way out of a paper bag.
I love that line on the IMDB page that says "Jennifer....will be an incredible role model for our audience." Well, as I've said so long ago, she ignored "her audience" back in 2002 when I went to the NYC premiere of this film.

Adam, I think a new board in the They Don't Have a Board yet subtopic in the Sink would be a more appropriate place for this.

There's new skinny on her "reality show" from IMDB, but I put it under the "Reality Shows" heading, in the "They Don't Have..." topic. If you're interested. (I didn't feel the need to start a new board for something that may get only a handful of replies.)

I asked, ages ago:

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quote:

Why didn't J-Lo's character have a real name? She was referred to only as "Slim."

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I also wrote, quite a while back:

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quote:

I thought the use of title cards to bridge scenes was unnecessary.

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According to a segment on CBS Sunday Morning, Jennifer Lopez is now generating Oscar buzz for something called Hustlers. Guess the standard for Oscar "buzz" has dropped significantly.

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quote:

I also saw a prominent character actor. I don't remember his name, but he was the defense attorney in the episode of "Law & Order" featuring the fertility doctor who used his own sperm with his customers.

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Guess no one was paying attention to how hospitals work.