A Masterpiece!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I felt really tense while watching the movie and it really portrayed the importance of a healthy relationship. People who are fond of a "come-back" films will really enjoy this one. And most of the married couples might relate to this movie.I felt thrilled at first on what will happen but while watching it i just realized that it really is fun . Some woman would really relate to it and maybe be encouraged because the story tells on how strong a woman is. How powerful a mothers love . Mostly married couple would love this and maybe learn from this.

If a smaller woman wants to beat a man in a combat fight, that's how you write it and how you do it! You don't just show up and he's beaten; that would make it completely unrealistic! What's so hard to believe: 1. An abusive husband that confines his wife, but does what he wants! That happens sometimes as it does in the movie: from first major argument on, a physically abusive man might decide to lay down his ground rules right then and there! 2. Slim(J Lo) had self defense training and anyone can get that(esp. against a coward who really can't fight). I LOVED THE PART WHEN SHE PUTS RINGS AND STEELTOE BOOTS ON TO SHOW THAT SHE WAS NOT FIGHTING AN EQUAL IN THE PHYSICAL DEPARTMENT! THIS IS JUST COMMON SENSE AND, YET, SOME B-MOVIES SHOW A WOMAN KICKING/ PUNCHING A MAN AS IF HE WAS A WOMAN! THIS MOVIE DOES NOT MAKE THIS HUGE MISTAKE! ALSO, THERE IS REASON FOR HER TO ENGAGE MITCH IN A FIGHT, SINCE SHE CANNOT BEAT HIM IN A COURT OF LAW AND GRACE'S CUSTODY CASE IS COMING UP!3. Mitch(abusive husband) had connections that rich men probably do! Even if a rich man is not crooked, he has connections and finds people who love being his friend. If he is crooked, he can find the kinds of friends he needs(BECAUSE THERE IS LITTLE RISK TO HIM). He talks in code speak and--even if a mostly petty criminal(like Mitch)--he is probably not going to do any time to make him stop. If a rich man is crooked, then both he has people that love finding or feel they "HAVE" to find criminal employment and there is little risk(SINCE HE WOULD DO RARE SERIOUS CRIMES WITH THOSE--AS IN THE MOVIE--WITH THOSE THAT HE HAD SOMETHING SERIOUS ON AND, THE OTHER STUFF, HE COULD ALSO DO WITH THOSE SAME PEOPLE OR OTHERS: AND IF CAUGHT IN THE SMALL TIME STUFF, HE DOES NO TIME WORTHY OF NOTE). Again, very realistic! 4. She had escape plans and routes--as every person on the run should!5. As smart and/or wise as she is(or through her dad's connections), she can definitely learn about the simple technologies, etc. of the day that could allow her to do what she did in the movie to keep Mitch from getting help.Negatives: 1. Slim has access to too many connections: Her father has connections that rival Mitch--if not surpass or circumnavigate Mitch's connections completely! Slim got "around" even before Mitch--having an ex in Seattle without explanation and she lives someplace else. Both happening to the same poor person creates instances of coincidence in a movie where she's on the run; this is bad for this movie. They could have had J Lo researching to find someone that was well studied in fighting techniques and stealing from Mitch or his mother to get money. 2. When she is on the run, there is a lull in activity there!

If judged on the basis of a competent thriller about domestic violence and female empowerment, Michael Apted's Enough is a pretty scattershot mess of incredulous circumstances, flat characters, and questionable decisions made by said characters. If judged on the basis of a pulpy novel come to life, Enough becomes a very watchable piece of fluff, one with an impressive focus on pacing and helplessness. This is one of the few films that comes along in my queue where I am simply torn between my personal fondness for the material and the plot, but my slight disappointment with the end result.The film revolves around a Los Angeles waitress named Slim (Jennifer Lopez), who slaves away at a diner with her best friend Ginny (Juliette Lewis). One day, a man (Noah Wyle) comes in with a plan to take Slim out on a date until another customer, Mitch Hiller (Billy Campbell), reveals that he is only doing so because of a bet he made with his friend. Slim is taken by Mitch's low-key heroism and the two decide to begin dating. We see their relationship evolve into a marriage with a young daughter (Tessa Allen) in montage before we zero in after the two have been married for sometime. Mitch begins cheating on Slim with a coworker, and once Slim catches him red-handed, Mitch doesn't respond in the usual way of defending himself or claiming he has a problem. He justifies it by telling her that there are some sacrifices she needs to make being that she now has a husband who provides for her and their daughter much more than she could ever provide for just herself. When Slim retaliates, Mitch responds with a brutal punch. And so it begins.Slim is flabbergasted, but her options are dreadfully minimal. Divorce is not an option because Mitch won't let her go, running away only works for a short time, since Mitch has several friends and private investigator connections that can find her just as quickly as she can run, and her increasing time away from Mitch only helps him during the inevitable custody battle for Gracie. Slim tries everything, from inquiring the help of Ginny on several occasions, assuming a late woman's identity, to even showing up at her wealthy, estranged father's (Fred Ward) doorstep to beg for money. He gives her $12, as opposed to his usual $6, because not only does he want Slim to "but herself a sandwich," he wants Gracie to have one too.If absolutely nothing else, screenwriter Nicholas Kazan (writer of Bicentennial Man) conveys Slim's helplessness pretty well here, showing just how complicated it is for women in abusive relationships. It's hard enough to survive, let alone provide, with this kind of albatross, and never does Kazan blame Slim, demean her, or disrespect her character. Say what you want about how incredulous the film gets with certain situations, particularly Slim's situation with her father and Mitch's goons having nothing better to do than meticulously follow their friends' wife's every move, but Kazan always treats his protagonist as someone with a lot of options that all, sooner or later, end in dead-ends.In addition, Kazan and Apted work well in pacing Enough, crafting a film that's frequently unsettling and methodical, as we're given time to spend with both Slim and Gracie. The trouble with this is that time showing Slim and Mitch's relationship together is so desperately limited; one scene they're meeting for the first time under a downright absurd circumstance, the very next they're married. One can infer just by logic and situational probability that Mitch had to have shown a protective or aggressive side during their time together before he hit her, so it's strange as to how Slim, a perfectly reasonable and initially hard-hearted person, would fall in love so quickly with a man she barely knew.These are certain details that are difficult to look past, and bog down Enough to where it doesn't succeed as anything other than pulpy entertainment. Even the end scene, which feels like grown ups doing their best impression of Home Alone, as slickly conceived and as satisfying as it is, feels corny and all too convenient. Once again, it's burdened by Kazan rushing to finish up the film, glossing through the methodical process of Slim's confidence building and training, to get to the credits before the two-hour mark since much of the time was spent on conjuring up suspense. While Kazan and Apted did fine work in one area of Enough, the area I initially assumed would lack, they did that part extraordinarily well and liberally and simultaneously handicapped any kind of buildup to the cause and the concluding effect/end-result. This makes the film feel significantly lopsided.In the end, I can't shake Enough off my hands as quickly and as cleanly as most thrillers. This early 2000's era brought some truly good mysteries and suspenseful films; the Final Destination franchise began, for one, and even one-off thrillers like One Hour Photo instilled an uncommonly disturbing amount of fear and dread in their audiences. Simply put, even with all the shortcomings and lopsided chronological problems considered, Enough is the kind of film that, if time is in my favor and I find it on Television about forty minutes in, I will probably watch it till the end.Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Billy Campbell, Juliette Lewis, Noah Wyle, and Fred Ward. Directed by: Michael Apted.

A movie where an abused woman finally has had her fill and decides to do something about the situation. And for some reason this came across as overly wake and forced, as though it could never happen in real life. But I was forced to ponder, why. Because had this been a film about, say, an abused factory worker, who decides to take action against his monster of a boss, it wouldn't have been anything extraordinary. But when it's a woman that decides to become proactive, it somehow feel slightly odd and even wrong. Are we so ingrained with our conceptions about what the different genders should be like that seeing a woman take a very masculine stance on something automatically bothers us? Apparently so, or at least I was, to my complete surprise.And therein lies the strength of this film. It's brave enough to take a stance, to have a woman in a role that's usually reserved for males, to do something that's pretty much expected of from men in movies, but which is extremely rare for her gender. In that aspect it's extremely fresh, invigorating and all kinds of awesome.Unfortunately the execution of this bold idea ain't so hot, so to speak. The actors are rather good in their roles, though Jennifer Lopez still has that "I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth" quality to her no matter how much she suffers. Not a flaw really, but she wasn't a perfect fit for the role. But in the end it's the storytelling and the pacing that keep this movie from being great. The basic plot flows pretty well, but there are certain scenes that go by way too fast and some that just go on and on and on... You've all seen movies like this where the third act is really hurried and the final solution comes right out of nowhere with no explanation or forewarning. It doesn't ruin the film, really, but it is more than little aggravating.Still, I can't say that I wasted my time watching this film. It's a good concept with slightly below average execution so as a whole this is still perfectly watchable no matter how you look at it.