Question:
A rip-off of a rip-off, Enough rehashes the premise of Sleeping With The Enemy, the 1991 Julia Roberts thriller which was one of many early 90s "------ from hell" movies inspired by the success of Fatal Attraction. In Sleeping With he Enemy it was the husband from hell, a psychopath played by Patrick Bergin who kept his wife a virtual prisoner and beat her for any indiscretion. She escaped and restarted her life but was pursued by the relentless Bergin.
Enough stars Jennifer Lopez in the Julia Roberts role, as a spunky waitress charmed by rich, handsome customer Bill Campbell (The Rocketeer). They get married, move into a big house, have a daughter and life seems perfect until Lopez discovers he's seeing women on the side and when she confronts him, he hits her and tells her he'll do what he wants and she'll put up with it or else. Fleeing with the help of her friends, Lopez finds that she can't escape Campbell's obsession and his resources and she must prepare for an inevitable showdown.
Sleeping With The Enemy was not a great film - it was mechanical and predictable and had some huge unintentional laughs involving the psycho husband's penchant for tidyness. However, it did basically give us a credible situation. Bergin made a believable and hateful psychopath and you could understand Roberts' fear of him. Campbell on the other hand seems more like a Bond villain, an over the top egomaniac with an unlimited supply of henchmen. And while Roberts was convincing as a frightened woman learning to stand up for herself, Lopez seems more than a match for the jerk from the start and, in the final scenes, gives Sigourney Weaver a run for her money.
Michael Apted does a good job of pressing the necessary buttons and gets decent performances from everyone, especially Juliette Lewis (where's she been lately?) and ER's Noah Wyle in a very different role from Dr Carter. However Apted and his cast can't get past the script's uncomfortable blend of gritty drama and glossy thriller and its frequent contrivances and implausibilities, Fred Ward's whole character being both. What finally sinks Enough and Sleeping With The Enemy as entertainment is the subject matter - domestic violence is an ugly reality that inspires strong feelings of anger and revulsion. You can't hope to deal intelligently with this subject in a Saturday night thriller like this one, complete with car chase and false scares aplenty, and it's hard to enjoy a movie, no matter how well made, that's about wife-beating.
Sounds pants! Nice review though :)
Enough stars Jennifer Lopez in the Julia Roberts role, as a spunky waitress charmed by rich, handsome customer Bill Campbell (The Rocketeer). They get married, move into a big house, have a daughter and life seems perfect until Lopez discovers he's seeing women on the side and when she confronts him, he hits her and tells her he'll do what he wants and she'll put up with it or else. Fleeing with the help of her friends, Lopez finds that she can't escape Campbell's obsession and his resources and she must prepare for an inevitable showdown.
Sleeping With The Enemy was not a great film - it was mechanical and predictable and had some huge unintentional laughs involving the psycho husband's penchant for tidyness. However, it did basically give us a credible situation. Bergin made a believable and hateful psychopath and you could understand Roberts' fear of him. Campbell on the other hand seems more like a Bond villain, an over the top egomaniac with an unlimited supply of henchmen. And while Roberts was convincing as a frightened woman learning to stand up for herself, Lopez seems more than a match for the jerk from the start and, in the final scenes, gives Sigourney Weaver a run for her money.
Michael Apted does a good job of pressing the necessary buttons and gets decent performances from everyone, especially Juliette Lewis (where's she been lately?) and ER's Noah Wyle in a very different role from Dr Carter. However Apted and his cast can't get past the script's uncomfortable blend of gritty drama and glossy thriller and its frequent contrivances and implausibilities, Fred Ward's whole character being both. What finally sinks Enough and Sleeping With The Enemy as entertainment is the subject matter - domestic violence is an ugly reality that inspires strong feelings of anger and revulsion. You can't hope to deal intelligently with this subject in a Saturday night thriller like this one, complete with car chase and false scares aplenty, and it's hard to enjoy a movie, no matter how well made, that's about wife-beating.
Answers:
Sounds pants! Nice review though :)
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